218 - There's Soldiers On The Moon - US Army 250th Birthday Celebration | Unsubscribe Podcast Ep 218

Summary

Unsubscribe Podcast Episode 218 Summary

Title: There's Soldiers On The Moon - US Army 250th Birthday Celebration
Host/Author: UnsubscribePodcast
Release Date: June 23, 2025

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1. Event Overview

In Episode 218 of the Unsubscribe Podcast, the hosts—Eli Double Tap, Brandon Herrera, Donut Operator, and The Fat Electrician—celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States Army. This milestone event is marked by an exclusive interview with General Randy George, the Chief of Staff of the Army, and Sergeant Major John C. Warr, the Sergeant Major of the Army.

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2. Introduction of Key Figures

• General Randy George: Shares his extensive military background, including his enlistment in 1982, transition to West Point, and rise through the ranks to become the Chief of Staff.
• Sergeant Major John C. Warr: Discusses his role and contributions to the Army, emphasizing camaraderie and leadership.

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3. Reflections on the Army's Legacy

• Historical Significance: General George highlights the Army's pivotal role in building the nation, stating, “[...] that reminds you that you got a job to do and stay focused on it” [06:10].
• Personal Anecdotes:
  • General George reminisces about taking a family photo at his desk, illustrating the personal connections within the Army [00:37].
  • He shares the story behind the nickname "Old Iron Tits" for Matthew Ridgeway, a respected World War II general known for his preparedness [12:50].

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4. Modern Challenges and Reforms

• ATF Rebranding:

  • General George discusses efforts to rebrand the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to better focus on violent crime, proposing a shift to the Bureau of Violent Crime [25:00].
  • The goal is to streamline their mission by separating gun regulation from explosive and cartel-related investigations, positioning the Army to tackle emerging threats like drone warfare [25:23].

• Drone Threats and Military Modernization:

  • Addressing the rise of drone warfare, General George emphasizes the need for the Army to lead innovations in countering these threats, referencing Operation Golden Dome [27:03].
  • He highlights training soldiers to operate alongside drones, showcasing advancements in training methodologies [29:54].

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5. The Human Element: Camaraderie and Leadership

• Encouragement to Join the Army: General George passionately advocates for joining the Army, highlighting the lifelong bonds and personal growth it fosters. “[...] the people I served with, those are my brothers and sisters for life” [15:00].
• Leadership Insights:
  • Emphasizes the importance of grit and determination in leadership, sharing his philosophy on pushing boundaries while maintaining ethical standards [65:38].
  • Discusses the unique leadership dynamics between military and civilian roles, noting the challenges of infusing military discipline into political arenas [91:37].

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6. Personal Stories and Anecdotes

• General George's Career Path:

  • From enlisting out of high school to attending West Point, General George reflects on pivotal moments that shaped his career, including mentorship that guided him towards leadership [05:00 - 07:00].

• Sergeant Major Warr's Deployment Experiences:

  • Shares a harrowing experience during an ID factory raid in Iraq, illustrating the disconnect between frontline soldiers and high-level Pentagon decisions [32:24].
  • Highlights the importance of clear communication and the frustrations of navigating changing rules of engagement [32:19].

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7. Engaging with the Audience

• Humanizing the Army: Both General George and Sergeant Major Warr strive to present the Army as composed of relatable individuals, breaking stereotypes and showcasing the humanity behind the uniform. “[...] the nation starts to see that we're pretty damn normal people” [63:00].
• Promoting Service and Duty: The discussion underscores the sacrifices made by soldiers to uphold constitutional rights, urging listeners to appreciate and consider military service as a means to effect meaningful change [103:10].

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Notable Quotes

• General Randy George: “The most important thing in our army is our people.” [16:52]
• General George: “[...] it’s our soldiers that are out there helping us to figure out how we should move forward.” [15:00]
• Sergeant Major Warr: “We are just soldiers, but we’re striving to make a difference.” [Specific timestamp not provided]
• General George: “If you don’t have to come in and stay 40 years like I did, but I do. And I think you guys know this.” [15:27]

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Conclusion

Episode 218 serves as a heartfelt tribute to the enduring legacy and evolving future of the United States Army. Through candid conversations and personal narratives, General Randy George and Sergeant Major John C. Warr illuminate the profound commitment, leadership, and camaraderie that define the Army, while addressing contemporary challenges and advocating for continual improvement and modernization.

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Note: Advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content sections were omitted to focus solely on the substantive discussions and interviews within the episode.

Transcript

[Cody]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home in auto policies. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. Happy birthday to the army. This is an organization to help save my life, man.

[Brandon Herrera]

This is our friend John C. Warr. Just a war is here.

[General Randy George]

And he was called old iron tits because he wore two hand grenades on his load bearing equipment.

[Donut Operator]

Man's prepared. You never know.

[Chef Rush]

I have 24 inch biceps.

[Donut Operator]

No, as do we all, chef. As do we all.

[Fat Electrician]

We took a family photo at your desk.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, I know. I don't even want to know what else you did that you didn't take photos of. Say hi to Eli.

[John C. Warr]

He's racially ambiguous.

[Eli Double Tap]

And Brandon, his hair is fabulous. And don't I a dark joke disposition. And there's a fat electrician.

[Dan Driscoll]

Welcome to unsubscribe. Oh, the secret echelon on some flavors that are coming out next. But I just. Just a quick massive, massive thank you to everyone. You. We sold out the killer apple in a day. We did not expect that. But we got a lot of responses like no. So starting today when you get this Saturday, you guys can run and grab another case. We just did another limited supply and then that is it. We just wanted all of you to have a chance to get some. Actually on this episode. That's what the individuals have been drinking. We are super stoked with it. It's an awesome partnership and the flavor is so good. We are proud of it. The guys are proud of it. So head over to echelon.com and go check out killer apple. And we have a couple new flavors in the works that will be permanent. And we're excited for those ones too. Go grab a case of killer apple. And seriously, thank you from the bottom of all our hearts.

[Cody]

Also.

[Eli Double Tap]

What?

[Dan Driscoll]

We just got to interview the general and the sergeant major of the ar. We started out in Cody's living room.

[Eli Double Tap]

What?

[Dan Driscoll]

All thanks to all of you. Seriously love all y' all. Thank you so freaking much. Cheers. Ready? All three, two, one. There's no hiss. There's no hiss. That was disappointing.

[Fat Electrician]

I had to carry these five miles in luggage. Okay, calm down.

[Cody]

But you're strong.

[Brandon Herrera]

You're tasty.

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah. Strong boy.

[Donut Operator]

A good echelon.

[Fat Electrician]

Oh, is it because it says unsubscribe at the top?

[Donut Operator]

You know what? I didn't think that's why before? But that might have something to do with it.

[Dan Driscoll]

It does help the taste.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, man. Well, hi, everyone. Welcome to the unsubscribed podcast, the Army 250. I'm joined today by Eli Double tap fat electrician Brandon Herrera, myself, donut operator. Thank you so much for being here.

[Donut Operator]

If you can't tell, Eli's a little stressy.

[Dan Driscoll]

Just a smidge. Everything's been changing on the fly. Just up until today, it's been an authentic army experience. Oh, my God.

[Fat Electrician]

Oh, you guys missed the best part. Like, five minutes before you got here. They were like, hey, we need you guys to pick all this up and move it to the other tent. And we're like, we. Yeah, we just got it. Got it set up. They're like, yep, move it.

[Chef Rush]

That's.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's.

[Dan Driscoll]

And then we unplugged everything. It started moving. They're like, no, never mind, never mind.

[Fat Electrician]

Put it back.

[Dan Driscoll]

Army.

[Fat Electrician]

I looked at tacky, and I was like, I'm just gonna go pick up rocks out of the grass.

[Chef Rush]

Ready for.

[Fat Electrician]

Ready for.

[Cody]

General George.

[Fat Electrician]

Get in here, brother.

[Dan Driscoll]

Get in here.

[Chef Rush]

We got our first guest. All right, private.

[John C. Warr]

General.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, my God. Introduce yourself, sir.

[General Randy George]

I'm General Randy George, Chief of Staff of the Army. Great to be here with you guys.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, pleasure to have you.

[General Randy George]

Do I get to crack my drink?

[Fat Electrician]

Absolutely, if you'd like to crack that thing.

[General Randy George]

I need the caffeine, so it's all you. All right.

[Dan Driscoll]

And beta, Allen, it's going to be a long day.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah, just a little bit, though, dude.

[Dan Driscoll]

Sir's gonna be pumped after that drink. How your party was amazing. Thank you so much for that.

[General Randy George]

Appreciated you guys being there. It was a great evening.

[Dan Driscoll]

That was a blast. I was like, oh, man, this is. Well, got to see your beautiful home again. And then the sheer amount of people, but also a lot of friends that I did not know where he was going to be there. I was like, oh, all of us. Knew a lot of people there.

[General Randy George]

Yeah, yeah, it was a good crowd. Went late for me.

[Dan Driscoll]

What time did you end up going to bed?

[General Randy George]

A lot later than I normally go to bed. I will tell you that. Late to late or early to bed and early to rise. So, anyway, it was fun. Thank you guys for being there.

[Brandon Herrera]

You know, my favorite part of being at General George's house was last night as an E4E4 mafia, having officers serve me beer. How did the cat.

[General Randy George]

Was it good?

[Brandon Herrera]

That was. That was pretty cool.

[General Randy George]

We'll have to do it again.

[Fat Electrician]

Sometimes some of us took Fake it Till you make it to an extreme.

[Dan Driscoll]

Where we are now.

[General Randy George]

We really appreciate you guys being here. I was just over at the PT competition. I don't know if you guys get a chance to go over there. So our Sergeant Major of the army was going through there. He had Brigadier General Ross. We had one of our brand new direct commission lieutenant colonels that were going through that. And obviously we got units from across the army that put their best squads in there, but it's a rough competition, so you guys need to go check that out.

[Cody]

Yeah, we saw them.

[Brandon Herrera]

There were some studs out there, some big old boys.

[General Randy George]

Oh, yeah. UFC has a team out there.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, my God.

[General Randy George]

So I think the NFL is out here. So anyway, they're finding out how tough it is to do soldier stuff.

[Donut Operator]

I got a little too close, and they. They started telling me. They started handing me paperwork and telling me I needed to cut my hair and.

[General Randy George]

Yeah, all sorts of stuff. We got a barbershop right around here. I can take you guys.

[Dan Driscoll]

Ain't happening, sir. Ain't happening.

[John C. Warr]

So you.

[Fat Electrician]

You once.

[Dan Driscoll]

When did you join the military?

[General Randy George]

I joined the army in 1982. Enlisted right out of high school.

[Cody]

No doubt.

[General Randy George]

And you dating myself. Been in a while.

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah, I've been in a while. And you. You actually went enlisted first?

[General Randy George]

I did.

[Dan Driscoll]

And then how long did you do that before going?

[General Randy George]

I did it for two years. It was actually my platoon sergeant that, you know, took me down and told me to take the test and. And, you know, said I might want to, you know, go to West Point was actually what he. What he took me down there for. So anyway, forever thankful for him. Sergeant Cortez, who did that, drove me down there.

[Fat Electrician]

So have you talked to him since?

[General Randy George]

It's been a while. So I'm in touch with last night. It was neat. SEC army had a bunch of his old teammates that were here that he deployed to. So, you know, through the years that you keep. Keep in touch with a lot of those guys. A lot of the folks that I've been deployed with back and forth to Iraq and Afghanistan. Probably a lot closer to that, you know, to that group just because of what, you know, some of the shared hardships and everything.

[Fat Electrician]

It's got to be a point of pride for him being like. Called it.

[General Randy George]

Yeah, I don't know about that.

[Dan Driscoll]

You kind of made it to a decent position in the military. You did okay now with that.

[Donut Operator]

This guy might have a future.

[Dan Driscoll]

Did you ever see your. In your career getting to the level you are now? Was that always the mission or.

[General Randy George]

No, I think I always talk about it. I think a lot of people, you know, you're in for a couple years. You know, you're walking all night with your rucksack on, and you say, hey, I'm gonna get out, you know, after this. I think everybody has been, you know, been through that. I think we all done that countless times where I've said, hey, I'm gonna. I'm gonna get out. And then usually just comes back to you get cleaned up and hang out with your teammates and kept me in. So it's just been the people I've been around that's kept me in all these years.

[Dan Driscoll]

You have so many people speak so highly of you. Romesha, he was one of your soldiers during that entire thing, and he. He speaks so highly of you. He actually. He was like, tell Jorge I said hi. He loves calling you Jorge.

[General Randy George]

Yeah, I was just talking. We were just up at West Point getting ready to talk all the. A thousand cadets who were getting ready to commission. And I use him as an example. That guy is an absolute professional. Was a war fighter, trained his people, and, you know, what he went through over there. And I told everybody, hey, and you're a lieutenant. You are going to have NCOs like that. And you were going to have to up your game to be ready for that kind of NCO leadership that's out there in our army.

[Dan Driscoll]

That is wild. That was. Now we're celebrating the army.

[Chef Rush]

250.

[General Randy George]

Yep.

[Dan Driscoll]

And this has been in the works for, I mean, 250 years, but actually doing a celebration. It's been a year in the planning, Right?

[General Randy George]

Yeah, we talked about it, you know, we talked about it with you guys.

[Dan Driscoll]

Shoot.

[General Randy George]

Last fall, early last fall, late last summer. So you're only 250 once. This is. This is a bit. Is a big deal. Older than our country. So we're excited. I love it that everybody gets to come out and see all of our, you know, equipment. I'm most excited that everybody gets an opportunity to meet all of our soldiers that are here. Yesterday we were out, you know, visiting, you know, with all of our troopers, and 95% of them probably have never been to D.C. so it was neat that they got that they get this experience and get to come in. They've been running around the mall, you know, hanging out. I think the only complaint I got was somebody spent $15 on a beer.

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah, that was right.

[General Randy George]

Yeah, that was pretty steep.

[Donut Operator]

You get the full DC experience, you get to see the. The beautiful landmarks, the. The historic Buildings. You get stabbed in uptown. It's a great time.

[General Randy George]

Yeah, well, I hope that none of that happens. So they got. They're also, you know, it was interesting talking to people. They're going to be driving Bradleys and tanks and, you know, you know, all of that. I mean, they're. They were so fired up. It was just. I love watching them get everything ready. And, you know, they were talking about telling their families back home that they're going to be on there. There's a lot of families that are coming, you know, from folks that aren't too far away. One soldier said he's from Pennsylvania. His family. His whole family's coming down, you know, and going to be along the parade route. So it's really neat. We're excited.

[Dan Driscoll]

That is awesome.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's why we were kind of late. Were stopping at every helicopter in tank and every gun we saw. We were like, ooh, just a little.

[General Randy George]

It's neat having that out here. Yeah, we. We kind of take. Take it for granted. We're around it. You guys have been around it, so you know it. You know, you can walk by and know what it is. But a lot of people don't get to see, you know, some of this stuff up front. But I always tell everybody, look at the equipment. And then when they. They normally, you know, talk to our troopers, that's when, you know, I think that they realize this could be a great team to join. So I think it's great that we're doing this here, you know, right in our nation's capital.

[Brandon Herrera]

We ran into some really cool soldiers over there. Brandon got the coolest thing.

[Donut Operator]

I haven't showed you guys this yet either, but one of the armories, they. They handed me the probably coolest challenge coin I've ever seen, which is a flattened mini ball, like a musket ball that they pound their company logo into.

[Fat Electrician]

That's awesome.

[General Randy George]

That is really cool.

[Donut Operator]

Rad.

[General Randy George]

Yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, that's dope.

[Donut Operator]

As far as challenge coins go, I'm like, that one's pretty.

[General Randy George]

That's pretty cool.

[Dan Driscoll]

That's up there. That's up there.

[Fat Electrician]

So I don't know. I got a general question about your house. I mean, the Joint Chief's house is. You're basically living in a museum.

[General Randy George]

Living in a museum.

[Fat Electrician]

Functionally, it's like, if you don't know, it's like the White House, but for your job.

[General Randy George]

Not quite the White House.

[John C. Warr]

Well, you know what I mean.

[Fat Electrician]

When I saw you move out, when you leave this position and the next guy moves in, and everybody's lived in that same house. It's very historic. They've got all the pictures on the wall.

[General Randy George]

Yeah.

[Fat Electrician]

What was like the oh shit moment when you were moving in when you realized like what a big deal that was, looking at all the other legends and enormous names.

[General Randy George]

Yeah, I mean, I do, you know, when I go in and there's. You turn right and there's a picture of General Eisenhower, former President Eisenhower, General Pershing. I mean I could go down the list. Omar Bradley, General Marshall. There's a Marshall. So I think, you know, Patty and I, my wife, have a lot of conversations on that. I just think it reminds you that, you know, that you got a job to do and you know, stay focused on it and making sure we're doing everything we can to take care of the army and make sure we're transforming for the future. So we love living. We love that old house. I will tell you, the heating and the cooling, it's like a little bit, you know, that's the only thing about an old house. But it's a unique experience and I'm grateful for it.

[Dan Driscoll]

That's cool.

[Fat Electrician]

While we have you, can you tell us your, your favorite story of your favorite general on the wall and why they called him that?

[General Randy George]

Okay. My favorite general. All right, Nick knows the answer to this.

[Fat Electrician]

I'm going to let you tell him.

[General Randy George]

So my fate and I've hung it, you'll, you know, right in that hallway where everybody can, everybody can see it. It's of Matthew ridgeway, commanded the 82nd Airborne in the jump in. In World War II. His nickname by his troops was Old Iron Tits. So that was his, that was his nickname. So I don't know how many of them called him that to his face, but that was his nickname, Old Iron Tits. And he was called Old Iron Tits because he wore. He had two hand grenades on his load bearing equipment and he always wore. So I mean, I've got pictures of him where he's in, in the hospital visiting his, you know, his wounded troopers. And he's lean, you know, leaning over and talking to him. There's two hand grenades hanging from his.

[Donut Operator]

Man's prepared.

[General Randy George]

You never know his uniform, he was always ready.

[Donut Operator]

So keep that thing on you, as the kids say.

[General Randy George]

Right?

[Cody]

Yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

I wonder how he felt about that nickname.

[General Randy George]

Yeah, I'm sure he knew, you know, stuff like that.

[Dan Driscoll]

So that's awesome. Yeah, man, I don't know how to follow that one up. I just can't.

[John C. Warr]

Beat it.

[Chef Rush]

Is it is.

[Dan Driscoll]

What do you have nicknames? Did the troops. Any of your soldiers give you any.

[Fat Electrician]

Nicknames throughout your career that you know about?

[General Randy George]

Not that I know about. I'm sure I got plenty, but not that. Honestly, not that I know about it.

[Fat Electrician]

I'll work on it.

[General Randy George]

All right, you guys let me know we find something out. I'll put it on something. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

If I can't find one, if I.

[General Randy George]

Want it to be a thing, but.

[Donut Operator]

If we can't find one, we'll start one.

[Wes Moore]

Okay.

[Dan Driscoll]

I didn't even realize you had a star.

[General Randy George]

Yeah.

[Cody]

You.

[General Randy George]

You were in 173rd.

[Fat Electrician]

No, he's got four of them. He's a general. What are you talking about?

[Dan Driscoll]

No, I'm in cib.

[Fat Electrician]

Oh, yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

No, I didn't realize he had two in a while. Yeah. Yeah, I'd say so. I mean, you're the only. I usually am the old one in the group because I was born in 1985. So you predate when I. Yeah.

[General Randy George]

Oh, that's rough.

[Dan Driscoll]

And you're still at it, though, which is awesome. And you, like. You used to love running the most. I know Romache hated that about you. He said you loved long distance running.

[General Randy George]

Yeah, I used to love running. I don't do as much running as I used to, so now I'm more into lifting and doing other body weight exercises. But Clint Romesha is fit, so he never had any issue.

[Dan Driscoll]

Nah.

[Chef Rush]

But he's.

[Dan Driscoll]

He has a little more fun and leisure now.

[General Randy George]

We'll have to drag him back out here. Oh, I have to bring him back out here.

[Dan Driscoll]

He wanted.

[Donut Operator]

I was just gonna say, I'm like, the guy. You know, the guy earned it.

[Dan Driscoll]

He deserves it.

[Donut Operator]

At this point, you're like, not, get his ass back in the field.

[Dan Driscoll]

Get that haircut going. You'd be like, any. Any message to anyone that wants to join or soldiers that are actually active right now.

[General Randy George]

Yeah, I mean, I would. To all of our troopers out there, everybody who's serving, I would just say how proud I am of all of them. You know, what they're. What they're doing. Around the world, we always talk about the most important thing in our army is our people. I mean, that really is. Everybody gets really fixated on equipment or technology, and right now, we're going through a significant transformation, and all that's being led from the bottom up. It's our soldiers that are out there helping us to figure out how we should move forward. And they are just innovative, gritty, and tough. And so I would thank all of them. And then for everybody else, I think whether you you don't have to come in and stay 40 years like I did, but I do. And I think you guys know this. I think the, you know, the army is a great place to start. You can do anything in the army and what you are going to, I think everybody that I've talked to, even if you've just spent a couple of years, the teammates you meet, the experiences that you have, the people you get to know, you know that'll last. Last you the rest of your life. And that's. That's been my experience with everybody that I've interacted with in the army.

[Dan Driscoll]

So it really creates a unique experience and a brotherhood and a bond that you will not get.

[General Randy George]

Yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

Anywhere else.

[General Randy George]

It's unique. It's unique. I agree with that and I appreciate you guys being here.

[Dan Driscoll]

No, dude, a whole bunch appreciate your time. It's been an honor.

[General Randy George]

We'll have another. We'll have another gathering so another time that somebody can get you guys a drink or two.

[Fat Electrician]

Sounds good.

[General Randy George]

So.

[Dan Driscoll]

Well, sir, it has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for your time. Seriously.

[Fat Electrician]

Thank you very much.

[General Randy George]

I'm taking my. Taking my drink with me.

[Dan Driscoll]

Steal that thing.

[General Randy George]

Thank you.

[Cody]

It's an honor.

[Dan Driscoll]

Do you ever have any bad habits?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, I've had bad habits. What, are we doing it now?

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah. Okay.

[Fat Electrician]

Sorry.

[Dan Driscoll]

If you're part of the 50% of people who try to quit vaping each year, well, you're gonna have to equip yourself with the right tools for the job. Right, Cody?

[Brandon Herrera]

Is it fume? Eli, can you tell me about fume?

[Dan Driscoll]

Well, one thing is it has zero nicotine.

[Brandon Herrera]

You can fidget with it.

[General Randy George]

Give it to me.

[Cody]

Let me fidget.

[Chef Rush]

Fidget.

[Brandon Herrera]

Twisty barrel.

[Dan Driscoll]

Twisty barrel.

[Brandon Herrera]

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[Dan Driscoll]

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[Chef Rush]

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[Dan Driscoll]

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[Brandon Herrera]

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[Dan Driscoll]

Bad habits.

[Cody]

Not fume. Bad habits.

[Dan Driscoll]

It also has an airflow dial.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm a minty person, so I found the crisp mint light and refreshing.

[Dan Driscoll]

I like grapefruit.

[Brandon Herrera]

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[Dan Driscoll]

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[Brandon Herrera]

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[Dan Driscoll]

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[Cody]

Dang.

[Dan Driscoll]

We're going to have all the coins this time. I like it.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah. So this is unsubscribe, limited edition, just for the armies. 250.

[Cody]

Hold on.

[Dan Driscoll]

He spits it.

[Fat Electrician]

It's like it was hauled several miles here in luggage on cobblestone sidewalks by me. So it might be a little funky on the carbonation.

[John C. Warr]

It's amazing.

[Cody]

Yes.

[Dan Driscoll]

You're such a good liar.

[General Randy George]

It's good.

[Cody]

It's good.

[Dan Driscoll]

Introduce yourself, Dan.

[John C. Warr]

I'm Dan Driscoll, 22nd Secretary of the United States Army. Excited to be here with you guys.

[Donut Operator]

It's a pleasure to have you, man.

[John C. Warr]

Let's do it.

[Fat Electrician]

Only 22nd.

[John C. Warr]

26. Did I say 22nd? Wow, this is off to a rough start. 26.

[Fat Electrician]

Even 20 seems low. This is a young country.

[John C. Warr]

Well, so when they created the SEC Def. Position, basically that took over some of the sec. It used to be Secretary of War, which is a badass title.

[Cody]

Right?

[John C. Warr]

But I know I tweeted.

[Fat Electrician]

I was like, can we go back.

[John C. Warr]

To the War Department? No, I want it.

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah, that's a dope title.

[John C. Warr]

That would be a title on a.

[Dan Driscoll]

Jacket on a coin. Yeah.

[Fat Electrician]

If we don't want to go backwards, we could always go the Department of Offense. Okay, that's a way cooler tone.

[John C. Warr]

I say the army is killing machine offense, so it could be the Department of Killing.

[Fat Electrician]

I mean, when's the last time we played defense?

[Brandon Herrera]

Eli, this is our friend John C. Ward. Mr. War is here.

[Fat Electrician]

Mr. War.

[Dan Driscoll]

United States of War. It's like, wow, they switched the Army's name completely.

[Donut Operator]

It's a little on the nose, but I like it.

[Dan Driscoll]

Dude, reading your bio. So you were. You went, well, officer first. And then you're like, now I'm gonna go to Yale.

[John C. Warr]

So applied while I was in the army. Got in like a month after we got to Iraq. I was actually with some of the guys I deployed with last night, and my driver's this dude, Beau Clark. And he was like, hey, sir, do you remember the day you got into law school? And I was like, yeah, I think so. And he was like, you remember what I told you? And I was like, not really. He was like, I told you to get your fucking head in the game and not get us killed that day. I was like, oh, yeah, I remember it.

[Dan Driscoll]

I like Dan.

[Cody]

Dan's good people.

[Donut Operator]

Dan's good people. In Iraq, when you got the email or the notification that you got into.

[John C. Warr]

Yale, So I had applied the year before and not gotten in because it was less compelling. I was just kind of like, average. But when you say, hey, I'm applying from a war zone, that kind of helped lifted my application.

[Donut Operator]

So you took the nearest Southwest flight immediately back.

[Fat Electrician]

The SA portion gets a boost when the return address is from Iraq.

[John C. Warr]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Donut Operator]

In the sa.

[John C. Warr]

I said, ooh, sorry, I have to pause this. We're getting incoming.

[Dan Driscoll]

Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot.

[Cody]

Okay, I'm back.

[John C. Warr]

And then. So I called my. My then girlfriend. So we grew up in the mountains of North Carolina together. I had asked her out, so I was a rising junior. She was a rising freshman. I'm only 18 months older. That sounds a little creepy, but I called her and we've been together forever. And I said, oh, man, I just got into law school up in Connecticut. I can't wait to go. And her first words were, well, I'm not moving up there unless we're married. And so the first weekend back from deployment, I flew up to the mountains of North Carolina, proposed, and we were married like three months later.

[Dan Driscoll]

Getting that.

[Eli Double Tap]

Baa.

[John C. Warr]

There you go. Yes. You went to Yale.

[Fat Electrician]

And bah.

[Dan Driscoll]

I'm surprised you didn't do before deployment.

[Fat Electrician]

Also, saying Yale is some college in Connecticut is the most, like.

[Dan Driscoll]

Downplaying a little bit.

[Eli Double Tap]

Right?

[John C. Warr]

Well, so the best part of it is in the 60s, the students there had a sit in protest that is kind of famous among students because they thought grades were unfair. And so they got rid of essentially grading in the 60s. So the key to going to Yale Law School is once you are in, you are going to graduate in the top, like 90%. There are a couple of ways to distinguish yourself for the top 10, but then you're in the bottom 90. And so I figured that out, like day three. And I was like, well, all right, this is going to be a fantastic three years.

[Dan Driscoll]

That's what I did in my military career.

[Cody]

The bottom 90. Yeah. And look at you.

[John C. Warr]

You're doing great.

[Fat Electrician]

The bottom 90 is a great podcast name.

[Donut Operator]

That's actually very funny. Well, something I don't. I don't even know if you know this, Eli or Nick. This is not only a privilege just because, you know, obviously your position with the army and whatnot, but also was the first time we've had a director of the ATF there. You have a podcast.

[John C. Warr]

There you go. Yeah. Two roles, one guy, which was, dude.

[Dan Driscoll]

I didn't know that. And I was like, holy shit. I wonder if Brandon knows this, because Brandon's.

[Donut Operator]

I Keep up to date.

[Dan Driscoll]

Social media was calling for him to be. They were like, he should do it. He should do it. And then congratulations on. I mean, both. Yeah, both positions.

[John C. Warr]

Are you coming for me right now, Brandon?

[Donut Operator]

Oh, yeah. That's actually why you're here.

[John C. Warr]

Are you gonna create my scandal to take me out of both jobs?

[Donut Operator]

I'm actually excited to see what. What you guys can do with it is.

[Cody]

What.

[Donut Operator]

What's that been like? Because you have obviously got two very important roles now. What's that been like, the process of, like, getting integrated with the ATF and figuring out what you guys are going to try to do, because there's obviously a lot that needs to be fixed.

[John C. Warr]

Yeah. The ATF has a complicated past. It is one of the kind of harder agencies to be at because. And I talk to them about this regularly. And I love the people I work with. Their gun regulation portion of what they do is through these guys, these IOIs who will go into. They'll both come up with regulations for gun stores and then enforce them. And so when Democratic administrations come in, they don't think they're doing enough and they do more. And then when Republicans come in, they think they're doing too much and they do less, and they are hated all the time. And I don't know if you've seen the bumper stickers, but there are some derogatory ATF bumper stickers out there.

[Donut Operator]

I've never seen any personally, but I'm.

[John C. Warr]

Not quoting any of them, but I will.

[Donut Operator]

There's a. No.

[John C. Warr]

But. So basically, what we're trying to do is focus on the violent crime portion of what they do, which they're uniquely good at. And so we're thinking about doing something like maybe rebranding it the Bureau of Violent Crime and carving off that gun regulation and putting it somewhere else. And if you think of the threats in the world right now with what's happening with drones and just the ability for humans to kill each other at scale, that threat exists outside the continental United States, where the army will take care of it. And it also exists in our stadiums and with the Olympics coming up in the World Cup. And so the ATF is perfectly positioned with the silent E. It's actually ATFE for explosives to kind of take on that mission. And so we're working with them to.

[Donut Operator]

Try to do that, because even on my end of things, because I would love to see nothing more than the, you know, obviously the agency disbanded, but it does do good job. Like, there are roles that are, I guess, the ATF is responsible for that are important, like the arson investigations, explosives investigations, cartel trafficking, when they're not the ones doing the trafficking. There are important roles that I think, you know, could be handled by other agencies. But for right now, I think, like, if you're going to have a certain budget and allocation of agents, I mean, that's the place to put it, is, you know, cartel ops and all sorts of the actual real crime.

[John C. Warr]

Totally. It's exciting to see. And that's what. That's what the agents actually want. If you talk to the agents on the street or you talk to US Attorneys who build these cases against the cartels, the ATF are the most badass law enforcement. Like, they just have these two very discreet functions that oddly sit in one agency. And so we are actively trying to both functionally rebuild and rebrand it and carve off that function and put it somewhere else, perhaps to allow the agents to do what they're so good at.

[Donut Operator]

Right.

[Fat Electrician]

May I suggest the garbage.

[John C. Warr]

The federal government garbage.

[Brandon Herrera]

I just want to.

[John C. Warr]

We call that the Navy. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

[Brandon Herrera]

Go Army.

[John C. Warr]

Beat Navy.

[Dan Driscoll]

Go Army.

[Fat Electrician]

Has there been. Because, like, I've. It's just one of those things where it's like, I've known this is coming if it hasn't already happened. But has there been any, like, high profile use of like, drones in the civilian world for crimes that. Because, I mean, I don't know, it's wild seeing what's going on in Ukraine and then like, you can just go to Best Buy and buy the same thing.

[John C. Warr]

Yeah.

[Fat Electrician]

Seems crazy to me.

[John C. Warr]

So this is fundamentally what you're hitting on is the threat of our lifetime. When President Trump talks about Golden Dome, what he's acknowledging and rightly telling us is we as a nation have to invest in is this idea that our skies are unprotected against these very cheap threats that can carry munitions into places that we just are not well suited as a nation to defend ourselves. And so General George and I were on record then the last couple of weeks testifying and saying we think the United States army should be the lead on this and on behalf of the Pentagon, should basically be the innovation engine so that we take down this threat, sink it in with Golden Dome, and then pass our learnings to the broader law enforcement community.

[Dan Driscoll]

It is terrifying. I mean, you were in Iraq, so you like that element. We didn't have that our fear was at leaving. It was. Was that H. Bids were just getting implemented when I was rolling out. So the idea of Drones being used against troops. I was like that. No, that is absolutely terrifying, Eli.

[Fat Electrician]

Finding out the IED is fly now.

[John C. Warr]

Yeah, they fly now.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, no, they're airborne because they started putting in trees too. And we're like, dang it. I don't know if you ever experienced any of that.

[John C. Warr]

We, we, we dealt with it more because we were back outside Baghdad and so like, like near the, on the eastern side of the Diala.

[Dan Driscoll]

Wait, Mochtadilla.

[John C. Warr]

No, we're caught. Four corners.

[Dan Driscoll]

No, we had four corners and then we were in Dialla River.

[John C. Warr]

That river smelled like shit.

[Chef Rush]

Yes, it did.

[John C. Warr]

I mean, like, you cannot forget that smell. There is nothing in the entire world that is rancid and stinky as the Diala River. When it would get hot, I mean, you just, it got inside your lungs.

[Dan Driscoll]

It was absolutely terrible. And then we warned them there was going to be a drought, and it was like, stop washing your cars and your sidewalks. And then the drought happened. We're like.

[Fat Electrician]

Here'S water.

[John C. Warr]

Well, so. And with the drones, what's so cool as an army is. And I credit General George and the team for it. I mean, we're now taking like our basic training. Guys who've been in, men and women who've been in for five weeks are running their lanes with drones up. And then in their after action review, they're actually watching what they look like from a drone. And it's, it's remarkable how quickly they're learning. And then this is the craziest thing is people who have been in for five weeks, the way they do drill sergeants now, I don't know if you know this, but they actually are the squad leader. So instead of just sitting on the side and yelling at them, the drill sergeant is modeling what leadership looks like. And so the drill sergeants are learning each rotation and getting better at it. And then those lessons from soldiers who've been in like five weeks is it's trickling, no bullshit, up to the Pentagon. So, like, we're learning and changing our TTPS from these 18 to 23 year olds who just have different ideas for how to like, lower their signature. It's wild, super cool.

[Dan Driscoll]

Are you guys going to start implementing like ski shooting in actually basic with as taking as a measurement, like shooting drones.

[John C. Warr]

It's actually not. It's a really interesting question. No one, until this exact moment, that had never crossed my mind. I didn't even know where you're going with it. But it's not a bad idea. It is a skill set. We currently don't train against that would make a lot of sense because you.

[Dan Driscoll]

Get like ski shoots when you have a drone. And I mean a lot of country boys will know how to do it out the gate. But it does come in handy when you're like drones coming. No, for sure, everyone has a shotgun with them.

[John C. Warr]

It is a great idea. Yeah, there you go. We'll name it after you if we do it.

[Donut Operator]

Congratulations, Eli. You are now responsible for what for many people will be the worst part of basic.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yay.

[Dan Driscoll]

I did that. Like, no, no, Any. What is your worst military stories? Like, just like, oh, no, I'm ready.

[John C. Warr]

Yeah, I got it.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, I love it.

[John C. Warr]

I'm ready to finish the question. And this enrages me and like, I think if you think of like, I don't know if you guys feel the same way, but I think if you talk to some of the younger veterans in the administration, like the Vice President Vance or Secretary of Defense Seth, I think they're all kind of open and on record with this idea that these our experiences in Iraq have informed our cautious questioning when we see orders come down in that people need to explain their logic. So the absolute worst memory, and this I promise will tie back in, I hope, is we were going out on an ID factory raid, which just sounds so cool. They flew in like cameramen, they filmed this. It was two platoons. I was leading it. We drew the stuff out for the maps and we laid out our cordon and our plan and we rolled out of the gate and we get there and we set up the cordon. We have work like military dogs and we go up to this thing to do an ID factory raid and there is a lock on the door that is like my six, seven year old daughter's gym locker lock at the middle school.

[Fat Electrician]

Like the ones that are on the little diaries.

[John C. Warr]

Yeah. It might have actually been pink. It might have been fink. And we get there, we have the voltage cutters were calling up to go and headquarters calls back down that the rules of engagement had changed and you were no longer allowed to cut locks. And I was like apoplectic that like, wait a second, you sent us out on these like IED laden roads to go do an IED factory search. And if they just lock up at night, we can't go in anymore.

[Donut Operator]

Swiper? No swiping works.

[John C. Warr]

It was just infuriating. And so we.

[Donut Operator]

Did they say anything about hitting locks?

[Cody]

Shooting.

[John C. Warr]

We weren't allowed to go back in. So we got back in the humvees, we drove back to the base. And ever since then, it has, like, planted in me this seed and this concept that, like, despite the patriotism and best intent of a lot of leaders, the preposterousness of the Pentagon and its decision making, by the time it trickles down to the actual soldiers that have to risk their lives can have these preposterous outcomes that even to this day, makes me just want to, like, flip the table over.

[Donut Operator]

But then there's the way that war fighters get around stuff like that, such as, you know, 50 calibers being anti material only rifles. And, you know, of course, chim chin straps being material.

[John C. Warr]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Guys find life finds a way.

[John C. Warr]

Life finds a way.

[Dan Driscoll]

I'm still more amazed. It's like, walk up. It's like, hey, there's a lock. You can't cut it.

[Chef Rush]

Foiled again.

[Cody]

Time to leave.

[Dan Driscoll]

Their ttps are really improved.

[John C. Warr]

They lock up at night.

[Donut Operator]

You Taliban.

[Fat Electrician]

That's wild. That's like the videos where the cops are like, why don't you come outside? No, dang it. What?

[Dan Driscoll]

You sure?

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, it's tag rules.

[Fat Electrician]

When you're in your house, you traveled across an ocean, through an IED highway, you got stopped by a padlock.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's insane.

[Cody]

It's wild.

[John C. Warr]

And I can't. So I can actually compare and contrast how ATF does raids versus some of our, like, probably the raids you guys would do if you went to clear a house. And some of our, like, I was down with one of our units at Bragg watching them in a shoot house.

[Donut Operator]

I'll hold the dog jokes for now.

[John C. Warr]

Okay. All right. So when. When ATF does it, it's kind of the wildest thing in the world. They go in the door. So they set a cord and they go in the door and they hold. And then they bring in drones and they bring in dogs, and they basically, from inside the building, clear everything out as much as they possibly can, which takes like 15 minutes. And so you're watching the footage and they're just kind of holding this, like, stronghold and they clear out the building versus, like, some of our units that movies have been done about where they. I mean, they go in and they clear this thing. The violence of action and the speed is like. I mean, it's sheer and utter chaos watching down on it. But they're done in, like. I mean, they'll clear 25 rooms in five minutes. I mean, it's just. It's.

[Fat Electrician]

You're doing something dumb, but you do it fast. There's less time to it up. That would be a Good bumper sticker. That's just science.

[Dan Driscoll]

Good to go, dude. Dan, any final words you want to say to anyone looking to join the military or active soldiers?

[John C. Warr]

Right, yeah, absolutely. So I'm, I'm incredibly glad you guys are here. The Army's 250th, like, if you think about this entity and this being that is United States army, we exist before the country was even formed. And that's very deliberate because it is soldiers that built the country. They sacrificed, they together went over hills, they. They bled for this nation and built it from scratch. And what that means practically to anybody thinking of joining is as part of this celebration at General George's house last night, I got to have. We probably had 20 men in our cavalry squadron platoon that we deployed with. Like 17 of them came to town. I hadn't seen most of them in 15, 16, 17 years. And we got to spend last night together. They came over to my porch. We sat drinking beers until 1am which I regretted this morning. But it's like this bond between us and the people we serve with. I think you would echo. I mean, they truly are the most formidable and remarkable and meaningful relationships of my life. My 7 year old daughter Lila is named after my then E5's daughter, who's now 15. Lila. He's now working in the Pentagon. My old driver is working the Pentagon with us. He's on the team. And it's like, it's the joy of my life to get to spend time with these guys. And so if you're sitting at home and you're listening to this and you haven't quite figured out what you want to do with your life, I guess my encouragement would be check out the army. We'd love to have you, if you can kind of pass our standards of excellence, come join an amazing set of ranks and you'll make lifelong friends.

[Donut Operator]

Dude, speaking of lifelong friends, I saw a lot of cab hats in the room last night.

[General Randy George]

Those are.

[John C. Warr]

Those are the guys?

[Donut Operator]

Yep.

[John C. Warr]

Yeah, those are them. A bunch of. They got out at E3 to E5, E6, and it was, it was just kind of remarkable to see where they had spent their last 15 years.

[Cody]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

That's awesome, man.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

Absolute play. I do want to. You. You can, we can cut this part. I don't know, dude, the. Did you see the conspiracy theories you started, brother? Dude, like, they're like, the what? There's soldiers on the moon right now.

[John C. Warr]

Yeah, we know it.

[Dan Driscoll]

We knew it.

[Donut Operator]

We're like, the what?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[John C. Warr]

So I can, I can Take this one. So we walk off the interview, and, like, one of my biggest curses is my supreme confidence. And one of my blessings is my supreme confidence. So I finished this Fox and Friends interview. I walk up and I was like, I fucking crushed it. And I walk over, and the comms guy walks up. He was like, hey, sir, you didn't talk to somebody on the moon? I was like, the moon? He was like, you talked somebody on the International Space Station. And I was like, what did I say? He said, the moon. I said, oh, okay. So the first day goes by, and.

[Eli Double Tap]

I was like, oh, I guess nobody noticed.

[John C. Warr]

Second day goes by, and, like, 15 million people have seen this thing, and it has unlocked all of these theories that soldiers are on the moon. But so from our perspective, we then have to take one of two approaches. Either we take the, well, it's classified. We can't answer the question approach, or we say simple misspeak. And so as of now, what we've decided is let it linger and decide whether we want to admit that it's actually perhaps true later or just keep saying that it was a misspeak.

[Fat Electrician]

Like, one question. The professional way of saying maybe.

[Eli Double Tap]

I don't know.

[Donut Operator]

You're like, one question. Does China think we have someone on the moon?

[Dan Driscoll]

Just one specialist on the moon by himself.

[Cody]

He hates his job.

[Brandon Herrera]

He's like, he's sweeping moon.

[Fat Electrician]

Oh, my God. Sending E4s to the moon is right up there with Armageddon. Like, we can train oil riggers to be astronauts easier than we could train astronauts to drill a hole. Perfect.

[John C. Warr]

So in conclusion, we definitely have a soldier on the International Space Station. And we maybe have a soldier on the moon.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, I love it.

[Fat Electrician]

And on that.

[Dan Driscoll]

And we'll never know now we'll just cut out. We definitely have a soldier on the moon. Just edit it like that. It's like, no. Dan has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much.

[John C. Warr]

Hey, thank you for having me. I'm grateful for you guys.

[Donut Operator]

Thank you.

[John C. Warr]

Thank you for being here.

[Dan Driscoll]

I don't know what to call you. I'll just.

[John C. Warr]

Dan is sufficient.

[Cody]

Okay, good, good.

[Dan Driscoll]

Hey, Brandon, do you have cash app? Brandon, I asked you a f. Cking question.

[Donut Operator]

No, Eli. What's that?

[Dan Driscoll]

Do you have cash app? Brandon, how did you do that? Brandon, anything's possible when you use cash app.

[Donut Operator]

Okay?

[Dan Driscoll]

Moving money should be easy, Brandon. That's why there's cash app.

[Donut Operator]

Wow, this is really easy to use. I have it now. Don't hit me again.

[Dan Driscoll]

Catch up is fast, safe, and way more personalized. Than the other apps out there.

[Donut Operator]

No extra hoops to jump through, no extra stress. All the tools are right there to help you cash in.

[Dan Driscoll]

Plus, sending money through cash app actually feels safe and secure.

[Donut Operator]

If something seems sketchy or there's like red flags that you might be sending your money to a scammer, they let you know. They'll give you a warning and make you think twice before hitting send. It's like having a bodyguard for your cash. Send your bunny some money with the eggplant emoji.

[Dan Driscoll]

My favorite.

[Donut Operator]

Make his friends think twice.

[Chef Rush]

Brandon, what are these three drops of.

[Dan Driscoll]

Water and an eggplant mean?

[Donut Operator]

It's a tip for good service.

[Dan Driscoll]

I like tips. Just a tip.

[Eli Double Tap]

Just.

[Donut Operator]

Just the tip.

[Dan Driscoll]

And for whatever reason, if you don't have cash app, just head over to your phone app store and download it today and use code UNSUB10.

[Donut Operator]

And if you send $5 to a friend, you get $10 deposited in your account just for getting started.

[Dan Driscoll]

Send Brandon $5. His number is.3 new cash app users can use our exclusive code to earn some additional cash.

[Chef Rush]

Legit.

[Dan Driscoll]

For reals? No catch.

[Donut Operator]

Just download cash app and use our code unsub10. Send $5 to a friend within 14 days, and you'll get 10 bucks dropped right into your account.

[Dan Driscoll]

That's money. That's cash app.

[Eli Double Tap]

Hey, let's go live without him.

[Wes Moore]

We're already there. Isn't it still recording right now?

[Eli Double Tap]

We don't need these guys, do we?

[Cody]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Sweet. How we doing, America? We fired them all.

[Cody]

Just.

[Wes Moore]

Just pull it up and get it close to your face. You got to get close. You got to get, like, 2 inches away from it.

[Chef Rush]

Super close. Yeah.

[Wes Moore]

Super close to it.

[Eli Double Tap]

Is this my spot?

[Wes Moore]

Well, once you start talking in the mic, it will be perfect. There you go. You're going to be the center of attention, just. Just like you wanted it to be. This is why you became sergeant major, isn't it?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Cody]

No.

[Wes Moore]

Are you sure?

[Eli Double Tap]

I am positive. I didn't know what the sergeant major of the army was till Dan daly showed up in Iraq one time and. And got in the way. He's like, what do you mean this visit's happening? Who is this guy? We were focused on the mission you've.

[Wes Moore]

Been in for how long now?

[Brandon Herrera]

You like 31.

[Wes Moore]

31?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah. 31, which is. Math's not my specialty, so.

[Wes Moore]

Well, that's why we joined the army.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah. My wife knows exactly. She's my. She's my data analytics person.

[Chef Rush]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

So I think it's 31 and some change. Something like that.

[Wes Moore]

Okay. Where did you first start? Because I know my. My beginnings were Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Civil Affairs.

[Eli Double Tap]

So, I mean, I'm a off the street soft guy. So, you know, I watched Mogadishu happen and. And I left ROTC at the Ohio State University. Enlisted. Yep. The drives my XO crazy. He's a Michigan guy, but. But that's where I started my journey at MEP Station in Columbus, Ohio. And, you know, went. Went straight in and boom, Fort Bragg.

[Wes Moore]

So you went straight in and you already had like a college degree or something?

[Eli Double Tap]

No, I had had about 110 credit hours from Ohio State.

[Dan Driscoll]

I didn't even.

[Eli Double Tap]

I didn't have anything completely.

[Wes Moore]

Why not? Why enlisted in that officer?

[Eli Double Tap]

Well, I knew when I was at rotc there was tension there. My father was an officer, my grandfather was an officer, and I just, you know, I took advice of. Of, you know, senior people that had done things and accomplished, you know, been successful, but deep down, there was always this tension in me about. I wanted to be an nco.

[Wes Moore]

Okay.

[Eli Double Tap]

And so when I watched Mogadishu go down, that was it. I was like, all right, I'm out. And I went down and figured out the fastest way to get in the Army. And that was back then. It's called a rep 63 program. Nowadays. We know it as the 18x ray program.

[Wes Moore]

Yes. So you said your father and your grandfather are both officers?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Chef Rush]

Tell me more about that.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, so my. My dad did like. I think it's 27 years. Forgive me, pop, if I got a year off there. And then my grandfather, I think, was 36 at.

[Wes Moore]

Both active or.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, yeah, both active. Yeah. Yeah. My grandfather commissioned out of Princeton, you know, landed in North Africa and came home when Berlin fell. And then my dad. My dad went to college first, then enlisted and went to ocs.

[Wes Moore]

And how long. How long was he in?

[Eli Double Tap]

My father? 26, 27 years.

[Wes Moore]

So he was. And he probably started in, what, like.

[Dan Driscoll]

The late 50s, my father?

[Eli Double Tap]

No, no, no, no, no, NO, NO. 60s, 60s. He retired 95.

[Cody]

So he was.

[Wes Moore]

I assumed that he went over to Vietnam then.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, yeah, yeah, he was. Vietnam. He did a year in Thailand, I think.

[Wes Moore]

In a year in Vietnam, did he go, like, soft?

[Cody]

Well, I mean, no.

[Eli Double Tap]

He's a quartermaster officer.

[Fat Electrician]

Okay.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, he was a quartermaster officer. Probably why I have such a big heart for the sustainment community. It's because I learned through my father's service the importance of PhD level war fighting. Happens in the sustainment community.

[Wes Moore]

Okay.

[Eli Double Tap]

If you can win in the first 24 hours, you, you might not, you might be all right with crappy sustainment, but that's, that's not the type of fight we're preparing for. Sustainment's everything.

[Wes Moore]

I kind of. Yeah, I don't know if it's the same or if it's correlated in any way, but watching Russia pushing through Ukraine and then seeing that break down within like the first couple months.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's everything. Yeah. I mean, I'm yet to see any of the predictions come to fruition where it's going to be a quick, short conflict. They seem to continue to be long and drawn out. And so, you know, protection, sustainment, organic industrial base, all those things are going to matter.

[Wes Moore]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Wes Moore]

So when you saw Mogadishu, we were like, oh, Ranger Regiment, Delta guys, I have to go soft. Or did you just see it and go?

[Eli Double Tap]

No, I, I just, I just couldn't. So I, I struggled at Ohio State to watch Desert Stories form. So I was already, I already had this tension.

[Wes Moore]

What do you mean you struggled?

[Eli Double Tap]

I watched it because I was a college student, you know, and, and I was like, man, I want to be in the service right now. I don't want to be at school. But, you know, I got past that. I pushed past that. I think I was a freshman when that happened. I can't remember exactly. But anyway, when Mogadishu went down and again, that was one of the first ones where it was like on television, right? Like you're, you're, you were watching it.

[Wes Moore]

The war was in your life.

[Eli Double Tap]

I was like, okay, I'm done, I'm done. I gotta get out of here. I got to get in the service. The soft thing comes from. Oh, man, if my mom was here, she'd tell you she knew I was going to be a Green Beret when I was probably about eighth grade. But I used to just lay on the living room floor and read. Read the old Southeast Asia, macv, sog, sf, you know, novels and non fiction books. And, you know, my mother was just happy I was reading. But I was addicted to the mission. I was addicted to the mission.

[Wes Moore]

What was one of the favorite books that you read? I've read Five Years or Not Five Years to Freedom.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, man, I, and I forget the author of it.

[Wes Moore]

He's like one of the fathers of like, soft forces.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Wes Moore]

And then he got ambushed in the Philippines.

[Eli Double Tap]

I got a few of these. Oh, you're talking about. He's the father of the Sear School.

[Wes Moore]

Sear School, that's What?

[Eli Double Tap]

It was not banks. Oh, man. My SF History. People are gonna ding me for this one.

[Wes Moore]

You're on the spot, Colonel.

[Eli Double Tap]

He was killed in an ambush in the Philippines.

[Wes Moore]

In the Philippines.

[Eli Double Tap]

Let me stop thinking about. I'll come back to it. But what I fell in love with, be honest with you, was the SF ODA mission with mountain yards.

[Wes Moore]

Well, I don't know what mountain yards is.

[Eli Double Tap]

So the mountain yards were an indigenous people in Southeast Asia, like the Hmong or Different? A little bit.

[Cody]

Yes.

[Dan Driscoll]

Okay.

[Cody]

Yes.

[Eli Double Tap]

And they would go in, and they would have to build rapport, and then he would literally turn them into a farm fighting force. And I thought that. I mean, you're alone and afraid. You have very little support.

[Cody]

Oh, here we go. We're busy.

[Chef Rush]

We're busy.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, I thought you guys all quit. I thought you quit.

[Dan Driscoll]

We don't quit nothing.

[Eli Double Tap]

How's everybody doing?

[Fat Electrician]

Oh, we're doing good. How about you?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, good, man. I was watching you guys at the secretary.

[Cody]

Yeah.

[Fat Electrician]

How do we do?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, he's pretty. He's pretty cool, isn't he? Yeah, yeah, he's. He's. Yeah, he's about as patriotic as you get, man. He. And he's got a neat history, right? I mean, he's actually. You know, he's done it. Served, he's deployed. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Special.

[Eli Double Tap]

Special to have him right now.

[Dan Driscoll]

There he is. Quite the history. And so do you. Don't downplay yourself. You have a crazy military story.

[Eli Double Tap]

I tried.

[Dan Driscoll]

You're very humble for everything you've done.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah, we. We broke into your office when we went to the Pentagon.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, I know.

[Fat Electrician]

Wow. This is a lot of awards.

[Donut Operator]

Fen, do you want to put up that photo real quick?

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah, right here.

[Fat Electrician]

We took a family photo at your desk.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, I know.

[Fat Electrician]

It was the pinnacle of my E4 career completely.

[Eli Double Tap]

I don't even want to know what else you did that you didn't take photos of.

[Dan Driscoll]

The S. Who's the S. Major next to you?

[Eli Double Tap]

What do you. Oh, right next to me. That's. That's my xo, Sergeant Major Wilson.

[Dan Driscoll]

Sergeant Major Wilson?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah. Joe Wilson.

[Dan Driscoll]

We were in the same deployment.

[Cody]

Yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, I didn't.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a small army. I'll tell you.

[Fat Electrician]

You need one of those.

[Chef Rush]

It is.

[Eli Double Tap]

And the older you get. I swear, it's.

[John C. Warr]

It's.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's not actually shrinking our end strength. We're actually trying to get bigger, but I swear it's getting smaller from how many people. You know. He's thirsty, this guy.

[Fat Electrician]

That's for you.

[Eli Double Tap]

What are we drinking?

[Fat Electrician]

It's energy drink if you need one.

[Eli Double Tap]

I'll try it.

[Fat Electrician]

No alcohol. It's the unsub.

[Eli Double Tap]

That would be cleaner. Yeah, well, that's what worries me. If it was straight bourbon. It's clean. I know what it is. Ingredient. One bourbon.

[Donut Operator]

Cheers a man after my own.

[Eli Double Tap]

I will have one tonight when this is all over with. And it might be a double.

[Donut Operator]

I'm gonna have one in like 30 minutes.

[Dan Driscoll]

Smart man. Smart man. What, so you just, you just wrapped the what, fitness competition.

[Cody]

Competition.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, we. We started it off. I got a lot of you. I was a little. I was a little concerned. I'm not exactly a spring chicken. I used to be, but. But I can't help myself. I think I drive my wife crazy. I still, I like to compete. I like to push through stuff. And so I said, screw it. I'm gonna. I'm gonna enter the team. I snatched up Tim because I knew Tim can carry heavy stuff. Tim Kennedy can still carry heavy stuff, that's for sure. And then grab some really good teammates. Brigadier General Ross, who. Who I've known since he was one of my students, Rob Haney came out of the 25th. He was on. He was on. He was on a episode with you guys. And then Kyle, Kevin Wheel, one of our new lieutenant colonels.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, that.

[Eli Double Tap]

We broke in properly.

[Dan Driscoll]

He loved it.

[Eli Double Tap]

He's not broken. We didn't break him.

[Dan Driscoll]

We'll find out soon.

[Eli Double Tap]

Find out, Rich.

[Donut Operator]

We kind of jumped right on in. But do you want to give a brief introduction of who you are?

[John C. Warr]

No.

[Donut Operator]

Okay, well, that's easy. We'll see you guys next.

[Fat Electrician]

Perfect.

[Dan Driscoll]

Sure.

[Eli Double Tap]

I mean, I'm. I'm Mike Weimer. I'm the Sergeant Major of the Army. The 17th Sergeant Major of the Army. Still sounds weird to even say that, but. Yeah, it is. It is an honor, though. And I don't think I fully understood that until, you know, the decision was made and we started the six month kind of transition into, you know, what does it mean to be the Sergeant Major of the United States Army? But I started to quickly, like, wow, okay, this is. This is heavy. Right? There's a lot, you know, we're a big army, you know, 950,000 ish. Just in uniform. But then, you know, we're a profession that counts families, like, I don't know, I won't mention other companies by name, but take your fortune 1/ hundreds. And they're not really worried about families like we are with, you know, their, Their housing, their child care, their, you know, Their health care. It's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot. But anyway, pretty cool. I've been soft most of my life, so I had a lot of big army stuff to learn. You know, watching your podcast, watching, you know, fat electrician. I probably learned some stuff there about the big army.

[Fat Electrician]

Oh, that's weird for me.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your history teacher's proud of you, though.

[Fat Electrician]

I educated the sergeant Major of the army. All right.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

Feels good with humor.

[Fat Electrician]

Okay, Eli, scooch over. My ego needs room.

[Dan Driscoll]

Eli, leave the podcast. This is my podcast now.

[Fat Electrician]

Eli, you're in my ego seat.

[Donut Operator]

Eli, quick, bully him.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, but no, seriously, I mean, I had. I had a lot to learn, but. But I'm an inquisitive guy. I love to read. I love to study in the army. God, we got so much going on. I mean, people have no idea what the army does for the. The nation, whether it's, you know, organic industrial base, it's the corps of engineer, and all civil works for locks and dams and waterways. And I mean, it's.

[Cody]

It.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's crazy what the army does for this nation, which is why we're here for the 250. Make a big deal out of it.

[Dan Driscoll]

It's crazy that. That level.

[Fat Electrician]

What.

[Dan Driscoll]

When did you take over as our major of the army? 4.

[Eli Double Tap]

4. August 23. For August 20. This August will be two years, no doubt.

[Dan Driscoll]

And was that, as you're saying? It was just a lot where you're like, oh, I have.

[Eli Double Tap]

I was heavy. I've done some pretty cool stuff in my career, but this is like the heaviest rucksack I've ever carried for the army. I mean, it's a lot.

[Fat Electrician]

You're basically the army's dad.

[Eli Double Tap]

Or the big toe. Hey, you know the reference.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah, you know.

[Eli Double Tap]

You know the reference.

[Wes Moore]

The big toe.

[Eli Double Tap]

The big toe. I've been called that.

[Fat Electrician]

The big toe is such a good nickname.

[Eli Double Tap]

I mean, it's. If you know the. If you know the movie reference, then you know what I'm talking about. But it is. That's why I wanted to compete today, because I wanted to, you know, kind of lead from the front and show all these youngsters at a 53 old dude with fake hips and rebuilt other joints. Can.

[Cody]

Can.

[Eli Double Tap]

I might be slower, but you can still get after it. Yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

I think you represent that your entire career. Career shows that you have. How many purples hearts do you have? Two or three?

[Eli Double Tap]

Two.

[Dan Driscoll]

Two. And as I.D. gunshot. I know.

[Cody]

I made a joke.

[Dan Driscoll]

They're both shrapnel Both of them, both.

[Eli Double Tap]

Of them are shrapnel. One super minor, one, you know, more, more effective than the first one.

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

The second one took me out for a little while. It took me about six months to recover. No, you know, maybe a little bit longer than that. But I was able to climb the rope and kit to deploy in six months, so that's all that mattered.

[Dan Driscoll]

I went to the wrong aid station. I didn't even have a day off when I got shot. I literally went to the wrong aid station. So I was on a mission the next day.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's a good aid station. No, it's not. I don't understand. I don't understand what you want me.

[Dan Driscoll]

To do right now.

[Wes Moore]

They fixed you in a day. That sounds really good.

[Eli Double Tap]

I, I, I, like there's a lot of other things I want to tell you right now, but I'll keep, I.

[Dan Driscoll]

Won'T do that, but don't do it here, Eli.

[Donut Operator]

Have some ibuprofen.

[Dan Driscoll]

Walking, literally, I was like, okay, oh.

[Fat Electrician]

I'm back on mission.

[Dan Driscoll]

Okay, this is it.

[Fat Electrician]

This is what I'll do.

[Wes Moore]

Yeah, before, when you guys left to go take a photo, I stole the sergeant major because I wanted to just get some one on one time with him because I'm selfish. And we started talking about his early days and his motivation for coming in and being a soft soldier. There's Mogadishu. And before the guys came in, you were talking to me about some of the books that you read when you were a child and the things that motivated you. And we left off on the Hmong, but that wasn't the group of people you were talking about.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, the mountain yards in Southeast Asia in the late 50s, early 60s. That, that was really like, like my mom was just happy I wasn't like in the eighth grade laying on the floor reading, reading. We'll just go with reading. You know, we didn't have all this back then and, but it was really, you know, what soft was doing in southeast Asia, late 50s through the 60s. If she was here, she'd tell you by eighth grade, she knew I was gonna be a Green Beret. Yeah. I mean, and I don't, you know, I'm being dead serious with that. I mean, I knew that's what I'm gonna go do for a living. You know, and it's morphed and changed over the years. You know, there was a period where I was, you know, a true SF Green Beret. And then there's a period where I did other stuff for 20 years. And then, then I went back to my, you know, roots as a Green Beret useasac. And then once you end up at, you know, more senior nominative level, then you're, you're whatever the army needs you to be.

[Dan Driscoll]

You just did normal infantry. And then how long did it take for you to actually make team for the first.

[Eli Double Tap]

No. So I didn't. So, like, I was at Ohio State. My dad was an officer, my grandfather was an officer. So obviously I got pushed into that, hey, you should go be an officer. And I was like, I'm kind of a blue collar guy. You know, I like callous and, you know, I like to get dirty. But I, I listened. You know, they're, they're. They served for 27 and 36 years. So I was like, okay, so I was at Ohio State, but I was already didn't want to really be in rotc. The Ohio State. Just make sure I get that out there. And then Mogadishu happened, and when Mogadishu happened, you know, because that was one of the first things you can actually watch on tv. Like, that was kind of crazy watching that on the news. I was like, all right, I got to get out of here. I got to get in the Army. So my roommate was in 11th Special Forces, which was a reserve unit, and they had a thing called a rep 63 program, which was one of the original 18x ray programs. So I enlisted straight into SF and came right off the street, went straight through everything. And that's my journey. Yeah, I'm 31 years of soft. That's what you're so much in the army to learn. That's why when I was telling the.

[Fat Electrician]

Only person I've ever met that actually enlisted is like the 11x ray thing and made it straight through.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yep. Yeah, it's called a rep 63 18X ray.

[Dan Driscoll]

Now that is why you were literally the first person I think she's ever met.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

That was always how people got him for five years.

[Fat Electrician]

Marketing scam the entire time. I didn't know anybody actually did it.

[General Randy George]

It's done.

[Eli Double Tap]

It was me. And I wasn't the only one. And, and I, you know, I'm not gonna lie.

[Fat Electrician]

If you got what it takes to be sergeant Major of the army, maybe you could make it through 11x ray on the first try.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, it was tough. And, and, and believe it or not, back then, depending on what you signed up for, if you were an 18 echo, then you actually went to Fort Jackson and you went to Fort Gordon at the time, and you became a 31 series, a communicator. If you were an 18 Charlie, then you went to go be a 12.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, interesting.

[Eli Double Tap]

It wasn't until the 18x Ray program came in in GWOT that they all went down to OSIT. So I didn't actually even go to OSIT. So to be honest with you, I would say it was even a little harder to go straight through. Yeah, but I wasn't alone. You know, my buddy Frankie and, and, and Alan, and there's four of us that all kind of linked up when we went to pre SFAs out in Camp Williams, Utah, which I think might actually been harder than SFS, which is why we probably had fun at SFAs. But we, we, we made it all straight through. The attrition rate was ridiculous. And to this day at least, my buddy Frankie, Frank Rossi, we're still tight. We still, to this day, keep in touch.

[Dan Driscoll]

No doubt. What was the. Yeah, what was the attrition rate? Like? What was.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, I don't know, but I mean, the attrition rate. I don't know. I'd be a liar if I told you I had knew the, the stats. I mean, the attrition rate today is still wicked hard. You know, back then we were surrounded by, you know, 75 plus percent active duty guys. So I learned from them in the course, you know what I mean? The E5s and E6s that were coming from, you know, the Ranger regiment, you know, the 101st 10th, I mean, they were old hats. They all had Ranger tabs, like they were just coming to work, to be honest with you. And they were fit. And so I had the fitness part down so I could pay attention and learn. Listen, thank God I was a fast learner. Trust me. It wasn't my iq. It wasn't my iq. It's hard work. I'm a product of hard work, not high iq.

[Dan Driscoll]

Determination, crit, man.

[Eli Double Tap]

I tell everybody, grit will go a long way.

[Fat Electrician]

Work harder, not smarter.

[Eli Double Tap]

I tell everybody now is like, no, I want you to work smarter, but I need you to have grit. Because we've kind of pivoted to where it's like, oh, I'm uncomfortable. Take a knee. I must be doing something wrong. I'm like, no, you're doing exactly what you should be. Shut up and push through that. But I do need you to be thinking, that's why the tech and where we're going with all the, with all the innovation stuff, but that doesn't replace grit. It will never replace grit. Or will.

[Donut Operator]

It's like a helicopter. You're taking the worst way to the sky, but just beating the air into submission.

[Eli Double Tap]

You literally kick the air's ass into submission. That is literally how helicopter works. And I got a lot of time in helicopters. Not so fun times either.

[Wes Moore]

I was gonna say how many times you fall out of one?

[Cody]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

On purpose or on accident?

[Wes Moore]

Did you fall out of one on purpose?

[Eli Double Tap]

No, no, no, no. Fast roped a lot of. A lot of them and had some interesting landings in a lot of helicopters. Done some long flights, fishing in a bottle to get to where we needed to go to do bad things to bad people. But it is beating, beating the air into submission.

[Fat Electrician]

I thought for sure when he singled you out and had you a. He was trying to pitch his new idea for the new army position that he wants.

[Wes Moore]

So hear me out, Sergeant Major. There's an NCO of the year. There's the highest ranking NCO of the army. Sergeant Major of the Army. I think we need to have a drill sergeant of the army. Just saying. Just the standard bearer for all of basic training land.

[Donut Operator]

I didn't expect him to actually have a pitch.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's all right.

[Wes Moore]

I'm very smart.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's all right. Not all ideas are great ones, but.

[Dan Driscoll]

The loud ones work. It's an idea that has. Hold on. It's an idea that has grit. It's an idea that has grit.

[Eli Double Tap]

We said we want you thinking.

[Fat Electrician]

It's okay, Rich, you heard it. Push through this.

[Chef Rush]

I can do it again.

[Fat Electrician]

I'm going to beat the air into.

[Wes Moore]

Submission until it sounds like a yes.

[Donut Operator]

Sergeant Major.

[Wes Moore]

Sergeant Major. The army is very intelligent.

[Chef Rush]

He knows what he sees.

[Wes Moore]

Looks like a ducks.

[Chef Rush]

Like a duck.

[Eli Double Tap]

I don't know. We'll have to look at it. It's the first herd, but, you know, first shots. I don't know.

[Wes Moore]

Just saying. Saying you're welcome already.

[Eli Double Tap]

Okay.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, I love Rich so much.

[Cody]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

You didn't prep that. So you get. You deserve that one. I didn't know. I didn't know.

[Chef Rush]

That was good.

[Wes Moore]

No, I thought about that for like three days.

[Fat Electrician]

Good. As soon as that shows. As soon as that goes through, we'll have the E4. The army too. I like have the actual E4 mafia. He's going to know where stolen designated.

[Eli Double Tap]

I'm not touching that one.

[Wes Moore]

That's why you have the E4.

[Dan Driscoll]

The army do it.

[Eli Double Tap]

We're getting here.

[Donut Operator]

Well, thank you guys for having me.

[Fat Electrician]

You just got a guy anywhere else to be?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

He's like, oh, my God. What did I sign up for?

[Eli Double Tap]

So what do you guys think about this?

[Fat Electrician]

Dude, this is awesome.

[Cody]

Right?

[Fat Electrician]

Cool.

[Donut Operator]

So I'm looking forward to it. It's. It's. It's just a privilege. I mean, we're. We're kind of in the. The boat where it's just wild to be here.

[Cody]

Wild, yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Be invited.

[John C. Warr]

So we're just.

[Fat Electrician]

I'm here. I'm having a blast. Every Uber I get, that guy's having a panic attack. Cuz 98% of all the roads are closed. You know, it's a good time.

[Dan Driscoll]

It is a wild experience for. I mean, like, even probably for Rich. It's meeting all of you, and you're amazing people, but coming out at an E4 in 2008.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

Never talked to anyone of high rank ever.

[Eli Double Tap]

I've met. I. I hope one of the takeaways is that, you know, the nation starts to see that we're pretty damn normal people. Honest to God. I mean, I go out of my way to. I know it catches some people off guard, but, like, this is pretty normal. Like, my wife and daughters would be like, he's like that all the time. He drives us crazy.

[Fat Electrician]

I can. I can. I can vouch for that because I think I was in the same room hanging out with you for two hours before I realized who you were.

[Eli Double Tap]

Perfect. That's perfect, man.

[Fat Electrician]

Eli told me after the fact, and I was like, well, I wish you would have told me before. I probably wouldn't have made some of those jokes. But they all landed, so everything worked out. That was perfect.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah. No, seriously, you know, from. From the Chief. If the vice was here, you'd see the same thing.

[Dan Driscoll]

If.

[Eli Double Tap]

I don't know if you got to talk to the Vice last night, but we've really gone out of our way to, like, humanize the damn army now. We got standards, and what we do is freaking hard. But it doesn't mean that you have to, like, take that whole being a human being thing and leave it at the freaking MEP station. It's. That's a lie. And I just don't think we've ever really kind of gone out of our way to show that, let alone have the technology. Technology to kind of do it. And you guys are.

[Cody]

Hope.

[Eli Double Tap]

I think you guys are helping us with that, and so are all the other influencers.

[Dan Driscoll]

I mean, I truly believe you. Look at the comments and the responses from. From the Pentagon episode and then the last episode when Butler was on, and it's so much positivity.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, Colonel Butler.

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Colonel Butler, but it is good old Colonel Geneva. Suggestions?

[Cody]

Butler.

[Eli Double Tap]

You know, I've known him since he was a young major.

[Fat Electrician]

No doubt.

[Eli Double Tap]

I got Butler stories for days.

[Fat Electrician]

We've got time.

[Eli Double Tap]

Most of them are, are not PG 13 for here.

[Dan Driscoll]

Perfect.

[Fat Electrician]

Where is the PG 13?

[Chef Rush]

Go ahead.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it is when I'm in this. No, I will say one thing about Colonel Butler. Let me stay official here. One thing. He is not. He is not afraid to push the envelope when it's something that's righteous. And he has been that way since I met him in. Oh, my gosh, what year was that? I was the squadron operations sergeant major. So that's got to be 20. 2012. 2012. When I met him as a brand new, brand new major in our organization. And he's been that way. That's where, that's why he is where he is today. Because he's gotta. We gotta push the envelope that it's not business as usual.

[Dan Driscoll]

It's amazing.

[Donut Operator]

It sounds like a very official way of saying he got in a lot of trouble.

[Eli Double Tap]

We always, usually would get in trouble. But if you're not getting in a little bit of trouble, then you're probably not pushing anything.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

It doesn't work like, you can't, you can't just sit back and be happy with the status quo or be scared of your own shadow. You've got to push. And then if, if you're doing it for the right reasons. Right. The. The purpose is righteous, then it's coachable moment. You'll be like, whoa, rein that in a little bit. Like we used to say for operators when we were training operators, if I gotta coddle you out the door, come on, little buddy, it'll be okay. They're not shooting at you that much. You're not the right person for this profession. I'm looking for people that I got to keep tension on the reins a little bit. And I let off a little bit when I need you to be more aggressive and I tighten it up a little bit more when I need you to. That's the warfighter mentality that we need in our army.

[Cody]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

And then the balance of staying legal, moral and ethical, you know, kind of swim lanes, like, you hold them back.

[Wes Moore]

To 80%, then you want them, you let them loose, and they go 100% when you need them to.

[Eli Double Tap]

If you're bold all the time and you're flat with all your teammates, then you got checks and balances. But if you're not bold all the time, then you catch Somebody off guard. And then that's when the system doesn't have the checks and balances. And then maybe you go too far. The goal is for all of us to be bold and then the system is keeping up with the aggressive kind of, you know, mentality. That's what we're trying to do right now in the army. Get the whole damn system to be bold and aggressive or the Chinese are going to kick our ass.

[Dan Driscoll]

I'm. You guys are crushing. I will say, I think we've all talked about it. It's like seeing the actual change and then it's kind of removing that yellow red tape. It's like, hey, let's push the envelope. Let's actually make change and making it happen faster. Even you guys sitting down with this and showing, it's like, oh, they're just, just kick ass dudes to hang out with, drink with when they're out of uniform.

[Cody]

But also pretty normal.

[Eli Double Tap]

Uniform, pretty normal. But we love the, we love this profession and we're completely committed with all capital letters.

[Donut Operator]

So.

[Eli Double Tap]

But. And, and we want to surround ourselves with people that are like minded and you, you guys actually give a. So that's why we wanted to start the relationship with you.

[Chef Rush]

Yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

Any final words?

[Donut Operator]

We have a reputation.

[Eli Double Tap]

We know. That's okay. We all have a reputation. If you're looking for clean and perfection and looking in the wrong place because that's not my 31 years of service, you know, I've got some, I got some glitches there. I was a specialist once. Somebody saw something in me and didn't quit on me.

[Fat Electrician]

Let's hear it. Let's hear the best specialist story that you could tell.

[Eli Double Tap]

No, no, we're not going there. I didn't get married.

[Fat Electrician]

I was almost the first one you could tell. We're not.

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah, I didn't remember when I was.

[Eli Double Tap]

30, there was no Internet. I was a specialist. So there's no Internet.

[Fat Electrician]

There's no evidence when I did it. I'm not gonna make some.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, I feel, I feel for youngsters these days, man. I mean with ubiquitous tech, you know, cities and everything else, it's, it's really hard to have coachable moments. It's tough. But no, the only thing I would say is thanks guys, really appreciate you. You can't lose your sense of humor. I'm being dead serious. The profession, serious. What we got going on is serious. But damn, nowhere have I ever read that you can't have fun along the way and be a normal human being. That's just complete so thanks. Thanks for coming alongside us and happy birthday, Army.

[Fat Electrician]

Absolutely.

[Dan Driscoll]

Thank you, Sergeant Major of the Army Weimer.

[Chef Rush]

Thank you so much.

[Dan Driscoll]

So much for coming out, brother.

[Fat Electrician]

Truly a pleasure.

[Eli Double Tap]

You bet, Eli.

[Dan Driscoll]

Hey, Brandon.

[Chef Rush]

You ever wake up in your bed.

[Dan Driscoll]

Feeling like you just fought in a war?

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, why do you ask?

[Chef Rush]

You ever wake up and feel like.

[Dan Driscoll]

You slept in a sauna?

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, I believe that's called night sweats.

[Dan Driscoll]

Means you got a trash mattress, Brandon.

[Donut Operator]

Why are we talking like Macho Man, Randy Savage?

[Dan Driscoll]

Cuz today we're talking about her premier sponsorship. Those men not ghostbed mattresses are built with cooling technology.

[John C. Warr]

So you're not sweating through your sheets like some street bum.

[Dan Driscoll]

You stay cool, comfortable. Most importantly, you sleep through your night.

[John C. Warr]

I got you for three minutes, but.

[Cody]

I got ghostbit all night.

[Dan Driscoll]

You know what's longer than three minutes, Brandon?

[Cody]

Any sexual experience.

[John C. Warr]

Experience I've ever had.

[Dan Driscoll]

Ghostbeds, 20 to 25 year warranty.

[Eli Double Tap]

And you've got a 101 night free.

[John C. Warr]

Trial to test it out.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, yeah, and you know what, brother? They don't just sell mattresses.

[Cody]

They have bases, pillows, sheets, the whole empanada.

[Dan Driscoll]

Just pick your mattress and grab a bundle.

[John C. Warr]

And right now, goosebuds giving you 50% off everything.

[Dan Driscoll]

Just use unsubscribe at checkout and save 50%. Head over to ghostbed.com unsubscribe.

[Donut Operator]

That's ghostbed.com unsubscribe.

[Dan Driscoll]

Use code unsubscribe or I'll show up.

[John C. Warr]

Under your bed and make ghost noises until you do.

[Dan Driscoll]

Go. Now.

[Cody]

I just want to reiterate, none of this was in the script.

[Dan Driscoll]

I don't know, we started talking like random savage and we're back on this chaos that is unsub. We had to move tents, as you've noticed now.

[Donut Operator]

So I think this is our third move so far.

[Fat Electrician]

This is true.

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah. Literally our third move. We have not stayed stationary. It's like, okay, they're good. No, actually, you have to move.

[Eli Double Tap]

No.

[Dan Driscoll]

Unplug everything.

[Eli Double Tap]

No.

[Dan Driscoll]

Okay, go back.

[Cody]

We're like, it sounds like a military operation.

[Fat Electrician]

It's pretty much. At one point I just said, I'm gonna go pick up rocks out of the the grass. Let me know when we're recording.

[Brandon Herrera]

Be like, we are fully immersed in army culture today. Move that now.

[Cody]

Move that now. Move that.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay.

[Chef Rush]

Like, oh, man.

[Donut Operator]

No, just kidding. Move it back.

[Dan Driscoll]

Wes, introduce yourself, brother.

[Cody]

What's going on? Guys, I'm Wes Moore. I'm the 63rd governor of of the state of Maryland. But I'm Also a very, very proud army veteran. I joined the army when I was 17 years old, served, served the 82nd Airborne Division. We're in Afghanistan 05 and 06. So I'm. I'm proud to celebrate the Army 250th.

[Dan Driscoll]

We appreciate you coming out here. You actually went to military school because you were a troublemaker.

[Cody]

Oh, yeah, man. I got some. I got. I got. I got sent. So. So here's the thing. My mother was actually threatening to send me since I was eight years old, and. And she would, like, send me, like, she'd give me brochures to show me she wasn't playing around. I look at the brochures, but she could never really. She could never afford it. And then finally, when I was. When I was 14 years old, I. I actually. She said, I'll send you to military school. And I was like, all right, mommy. I know. And she's like, no, you're going next week. And she sent me to a place called Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania. And I remember, you know, when I. When I. When I first got there, I ran away five times in the first four days of that school. I couldn't stand that place.

[Dan Driscoll]

How they can't wait.

[Fat Electrician]

How far did you make it? And how'd they catch you?

[Cody]

Probably about a quarter mile each time they called me because the school's in the middle of the woods. And so they'd always told us there was this train station out there in Wayne, Pennsylvania, so I was always going to try to find this train station. And. And in fact. So it's true story. The last time I tried to run away. Second. Sorry, second. Last time I tried to run away, they actually drew me a map on how to get to the train station because it was like, it's just pathetic that I kept on getting lost. And they're like, fell for it. I know. So they came into my room and they told my roommate to leave. They're like, he, like, you know, they told me like, we got to attention, and they told my roommate, they said, get out. We're gonna talk to more. And. And I was like, all right, well, you know, whatever's about to go down now, it's gonna be bad because they don't want witnesses, right? So I'm standing there, they tell me to take a seat, and I'll never forget it. His name is. His name was Sergeant. Sergeant Austin. His first name was Dallas. And I thought that was hilarious. But he was my squad leader. He sits down and he's like, listen, it's obvious you don't want to be here here, and quite honestly, we really don't want you here. So I've drawn you a map on how to get to the train station. So he gives me this map, and it has, like, handwritten instructions, it has a pace count, it has landmarks. And. And I'm literally, like, tearing up because I'm so happy. And I tell this dude, I'm like, listen, I'm never gonna forget you. When, you know, when you get out, let me know. We'll grab lunch or something. And he's just like, just get out of there. So that night I had this whole big great escape. I follow this map into the middle woods, and I'm just going deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into the woods. And. And you have to understand, so, like, I. I knew cities until that point in my life, I don't know anything about the woods. And so, like, the only thing I know of the woods, like, in horror movies, this is where folks go and don't come out of. So eventually I just sit down and I start crying because I'm terrified. And then I started hearing footsteps. And I thought it was just like, bears or gorillas or whatever's chasing me in the suburbs of Philadelphia. And then I hear laughter. And it was my chain of command because they follow me out. The map was completely fake. They just enjoyed watching my flashlight making circles in the middle of the woods. And. And finally they let me come when they brought. They brought me back to campus and they told me, they said, you're allowed to make one phone call. They said, I don't care who you call, but you got five minutes to make a phone call. And I called the only number that I knew, which was my mom, and I was complaining and tell her how I wanted to go home and all kind of stuff. And finally she said to me, she's like, too many people have sacrificed in order for you to be there. And she's like, and are proud of you, and you gotta give it a shot. And so after a pretty tumultuous few days, I finally gave it a shot, and it ended up working out for me.

[Dan Driscoll]

Your mom saved up, though, to put you through that school.

[Cody]

It was crazy. I mean, she.

[Dan Driscoll]

My dad saved up for Christmas present. And your mom's like, bye.

[Cody]

But you know what's crazy is that, you know, and my mother's not a person who makes empty threats. Like, when my mom makes a threat, she's like, she's not playing. She's literally couldn't Afford it. And so she was asking around, like, people she went to church with and saying, like, I really want to send my son. And people are giving what they could, a couple hundred dollars here, but she was going to be thousands of dollars short. So it was my grandparents who actually immigrated to this country. My grandfather was, was born in South Carolina but was run out when he was just a child. My grandmother was born in Cuba and immigrated to this country. And my grandfather was a minister. My grand, my grandmother was a schoolteacher, and they had this little home in the Bronx, and, and when they realized my mom was once again going to be short, they ended up taking money out of their home. I actually get emotionally about it, but they, they took money out of their home to give it to my mom so she could have a couple extra, a couple thousand extra dollars to, to send me away to military school. So I'm, I, I'm, I'm very, I'm very, I'm very lucky and it seems.

[Donut Operator]

To have worked out.

[Cody]

It worked out, man. It worked. But you know what's sad is that, I mean, I was, when I was, you know, 14 years old, I had no idea how much people were sacrificing for me, you know, I'm saying. And like, I'm being this jackass who's, you know, trying to get kicked out of school without realizing, like, your family is, like, giving up a part of their American dream so you could have an opportunity. Right. And so I, I, I always think about that kind of like, you know, the, you know, listen, when you're a kid, you do a lot of selfish stuff, but, but I, I, I'm really thankful for them that they, that they invested in me like that.

[Dan Driscoll]

Thank God they didn't have cell phones, right?

[Cody]

Thank God none of us had cell phones back then.

[Donut Operator]

I know you're the second person today.

[Dan Driscoll]

You been on Google Maps.

[Fat Electrician]

How's that train station?

[Cody]

Yeah, exactly.

[Dan Driscoll]

Like, we grew up in that.

[Cody]

We sure did. We like the last perfect era. The last perfect era. That's right, man. That's right.

[Dan Driscoll]

What made you go the officer route when you did decide to join?

[Cody]

Well, you know what's interesting was that I first joined at 17, so I was still too young to sign the paperwork. My mother had to sign the paperwork for me. And the thing that I knew was that I was like, I want to lead soldiers. You know, I was, I was trying to figure out what I want to do in my life.

[Fat Electrician]

Sorry, when did, when did you come to that decision? So, like, you tried to run away at first in military school, like, when did you start to like it and then decide you actually wanted to do this?

[Cody]

I would say by the end of my. By the end of my first year in military school, because my mother told me that this had to be a one year thing. And so at the end of the year, if I wanted to go back to, like, my mother at that time had. Was now moving back to Maryland. And so she was like, you can go to school in Baltimore. My sister went to school. We went back to school in Baltimore. And I was kind of like, you know, if it's okay, I'd actually like to stay because I feel like for the first time, you know, that I could ever remember, I actually felt at home somewhere that, you know, I, you know, I could play sports because I wasn't on probation anymore. And. And, you know, I was.

[General Randy George]

I.

[Cody]

They, you know, one of the great things I love about the military was that they put you in charge of something really early. And, you know, and, you guys know, it's like the first thing they're gonna put you in charge. Something small. They're gonna say, like, all right, is the hallway clean? You're in charge of the hallway. And if the hallway has stuff in it, you know, I'm like, hey, pick it up, because I'm in charge. I'm not gonna get in trouble because you can't find a trash can. And then they noticed that, and they're like, all right, well, now we're gonna promote him. And so by the end of my first year, I was getting ready to be a squad leader. Oh, so I have five people in charge me. And that was a big deal to me. And I was like, oh, I got five people that I'm now responsible for. And. And I think that at the end of that first year when my mother was like, all right, you know, you did what you had to do. Your grades are, you know, weren't great, but better. She's like, what do you want to do? And I said, I like to sit tight. And so I went to high school there. I finished high school there. And when I was getting ready to finish high school school, I started thinking to myself, like, what am I? What am I good at and what do I want to do? And there was one thing that was pretty consistent, was like, I feel like I'm pretty good at leading, at leading cadets. I'm pretty good at the leadership thing. And. And so that's when I was like, I think I'm gonna. I want to join the army because I want to make that part of my, you know, part of my future. And that's, that's, that was probably one of the first times when people said, what do you want to do with your life? That I could give him an answer. And my answer was, you know, I'd like to have a career in the United States army because most of the people in my life who I actually admired, they had, and particularly, frankly, a lot of the men, they had one thing in common. They all wore the uniform of this country. And so I was like, then that's what I, that's what I'm gonna do. So I made that decision. 17 years old.

[Dan Driscoll]

That's amazing. And you went to Hop John Hopkins.

[Cody]

Yeah, so actually I went to a two year college first. So that's just funny because save money, I'm probably save money. And I tell people all the time, like, listen, you do not have to do the four year college thing. And even if you do, you don't have to do it at first. You don't. So I will say I'm like, I'm probably the most improbable governor in America where I think I'm the only governor in this country that actually graduated from a two year college. And the army helped to pay for all that stuff. And so, yeah, so I went to two year college, I got commissioned as an officer and then I transferred to Johns Hopkins University to finish up my education. So it was, it was a great experience.

[Dan Driscoll]

Great experience, no doubt. And then you were infantry when you drew like you went 82nd and then you were at a line company.

[Cody]

That's right, yeah. So, so after I got my commission, I, when I was at Johns Hopkins, I was with the reserves while I was finishing on my undergrad degree. And when I got my undergrad degree, I ended up getting a Rhodes scholarship right out in my, in my senior year of college. And so then at that point I, I went off to Oxford. But what was really interesting was we left for Oxford. I think it was like September 24th or something like that, 2001. So literally we're talking like, oh, not days after 9, 11.

[Dan Driscoll]

Wow.

[Cody]

So it was really, I mean, it was a complicated time because a lot of the people who I had trained up with and done jump school with and all this kind of stuff were now like getting ready to, they were moving and I'm getting ready to go off to England on a scholarship. And I remember even having conversations with, with the military and conversation my unit and saying like, should I go through with this X Y and Z. And then. And their answer was pretty simple. They're like, listen, we. We know where to find you. They're like, go honor your scholarship. Go finish your workup. And they said, but. But trust me, we know where to find you, and you know where to find us. And so when I finished up at Oxford, finished my degree, was working in finance for a little while, and that's when I then decided I was gonna go and rejoin. Rejoin our folks. I went. That's when I went back to the 82nd Airborne.

[Donut Operator]

So. 82nd you would have been. Were you based in Fort Bragg then?

[Cody]

For a basin. Fort Bagg, but we deployed out of Benning, interestingly.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, no.

[Cody]

Okay.

[Donut Operator]

I spent, like, 25 years in Fort Bragg, so I got a place.

[Cody]

Well, really amazing. Well, I was gonna ask which.

[Eli Double Tap]

Which is the train?

[Donut Operator]

Which is worse, Baltimore, Fayetteville, or af. I don't know which. I'd feel safer.

[Eli Double Tap]

Baltimore.

[Cody]

Baltimore. Definitely Baltimore. You feel safest? Better food, all that kind of stuff. Baltimore. We're having our renaissance right now in Baltimore. But Fayetteville. Fayetteville is fascinating because. And I tell you, one of the things I love about the military is I got a chance to see the country in a way I would have never gotten a chance to see otherwise.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Cody]

You know, like, I would have. What? I would have never had a reason to be in Columbus, Georgia. I would have never had a reason to be in Favel. I'd never had a reason to be in. In Fort Lewis and never had a reason to be in, you know, Leonard Wood.

[Dan Driscoll]

You're at Lewis?

[Cody]

Yeah, I did. I did my advanced camp in Lewis.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, no. How long were you there for?

[Cody]

I was there for. How long's advanced camp? Eight weeks, ten weeks, Something like that. I actually have a great Lewis story where the Swiss.

[Dan Driscoll]

If you went, you went to the bars?

[Cody]

Yes.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, yeah, yeah, the Swiss, the schooners. Yeah.

[Cody]

Like, I don't remember the schooners.

[Dan Driscoll]

Chopsticks?

[Cody]

No.

[Dan Driscoll]

What bar did you go to? Dude, there was.

[Cody]

I remember I should have hung out with you.

[Dan Driscoll]

We had a. Yeah, we had a rotation bar. It's like. All my friends went to the same ones. Even afterwards, like, meeting new people, like, yo, you Swiss or Chopsticks? I'm like, Swiss. Oh, yeah.

[Cody]

Is it still there?

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah. No, all of them are closed.

[Cody]

All them are closed.

[Dan Driscoll]

All of them are closed? Yeah, they're Joe bars.

[Cody]

I. I remember one night we did. We were doing. We were doing a night exercise, and so, you know, you're taking turns on who's sleeping and all that kind of stuff. And I went up and they told us not to lean against. And I don't know if you had the same experience not leaning against these trees. Because the red ants.

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah, the red ants.

[Cody]

So I, I was tired, so I'm leaning up against a tree and when I woke up, my hand was like this big. I mean, it's the size of like my, my forearm.

[Dan Driscoll]

These ant piles and it, he will. They are this tall. From the ground, they, they will get that big. It's just an ant mound. That tall. Like they are the size of a tree.

[Cody]

Yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

Or they'll be blended in a tree and you lean on it and then they.

[Cody]

That's right. That's right. So my hair is ridiculous. Yeah. That's crazy.

[Donut Operator]

It's like every, every military base has its own, like, environmental threat.

[Cody]

Yes. Leonard Wood, the snakes. The snakes at Leonard Wood were ridiculous.

[Fat Electrician]

Anything in the Midwest is the mosquitoes. Camp Ripley in Minnesota, it's. They're hummingbirds. They're everywhere. It's awful. All right, so you did military. What made you get into politics?

[Cody]

So, you know, it's. I finished the military and actually when we got back from Afghanistan, I did a White House. I did something called a White House fellowship, which is, I had a chance to work as a, as a senior advisor to that time Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, which was an amazing experience because when you get a chance to spend a year seeing how policy is implemented, and then you come back and spend the next year seeing how policy is made, you just realize how different those worlds are. And just the oftentimes just like the disconnect between the policy being made and like when you end up being the frontline Joe and the one having to actually execute this stuff. And so it was something that I think I got an appreciation for how that world worked. But I knew even after doing the White House fellowship that I wanted to. I wanted to leave and get out of it. So I went back to. I went to the business world for a while. I went to. I worked in finance for like four years, five years. I started a technology platform in Baltimore that helped students who are first generation students make it to and through college. And then I ran one of the largest poverty fighting organizations in this country. And I think the thing that made me wanted to get into. Into the world of politics is, you know, I always tell people, it's like I never people said, what made you want to get into politics? I was like, I didn't. I wanted to be the governor because A governor is really a different kind of role. Like, we don't do the politics stuff. We don't do that. Like, you know, the, the yelling at each other and the yay, nay, like, as a governor, you're the chief executive of your state. And I knew the big issues that I wanted to work on. Like, I knew I was obsessed with dealing with the issue of child poverty. I just don't know how a civilized society allows so many children to grow up in poverty. And, and, and we're talking urban, rural, suburban, where kids literally, their futures are being determined before they even have a say. And, and I remember working with now a former governor on this thing that they could have done around child poverty called the child tax credit. And I remember telling him, you should talk about your state of the state address and all that kind of stuff. And I got an advanced copy of the state of the state address and there was nothing in there about the child tax credit and nothing in there about child poverty. So I was pissed. So I call up the head of public policy for the organization I was running and I was ranting and finally when I breathed, he told me, he said we work for six months to try to get them to include a line in the speech. And he said, but what if you could write the whole speech? And that was kind of the point that I could keep on sitting there and like screaming and telling these people that they need to pay attention to things that matter to like real human beings and real people and people who are struggling and suffering. Or it's like, or you could actually make the policies you yourself. And so when I decided to run for governor, I was running against statewide elected officials. I was running against Obama cabinet secretaries. I ran against the head of, the head of the Democratic Party was literally ran for governor. And then me, a guy who had never run for office in my life, a guy who was never a really political guy. But that's why I always say, like, the party didn't make me the governor, the people made me the governor because I was never the party's choice.

[Donut Operator]

That's very rare. Yeah, too, because like, one thing I didn't know before, I did a little dabble. I ran for Congress last cycle and almost took out an incumbent. But we. The one thing I didn't realize is that deciding to run for office is not, it's not really the norm. Usually people get recruited either at like a higher office. People come to them and they're like, hey, I think you would be great for X role. And here's $3 million to do it. We'll back you the whole way. Here's your advisors, here's your staff here. Just a normal guy deciding this is what I want to do. I didn't realize that just doesn't happen.

[Cody]

No, and that's the thing. It's like, oftentimes when people are recruited, like you said, there's a whole infrastructure that comes along with it. I didn't have an infrastructure. And so in many ways, what we try to do when we come on board is I said, like, listen, the party didn't make me the governor, so I'm not trying. I'm not going to turn into something that I never was before.

[Donut Operator]

What do you think put. Set you apart from everybody else in the race?

[Cody]

A. I think I just. We. We beat the brakes off him in terms of how hard we work. Like, I think people just realize our motor is just different. And I think we were trained that way.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Cody]

And I. And honestly, it's one of the great things that I think I've. You know, we were. We were trained to basically say, like, there's nothing that ever makes us flinch any anymore. And. And I think that mattered. The other thing is, is that honestly, it's like, I think we're authentic, and I think that matters to people. Yeah. I mean, I remember. True story. I was. There was something. And it was on. It was a July 4th celebration, whatever, and they invited all the people running for governor of Maryland, like, all 30 of them where it was. And. And everyone. They said it was a chance for people to get together. And they said, each one of you are going to have a few minutes, talk to the people. And so they're all out there and like, suits and all that kind of stuff. And I showed up in a polo and shorts. And, you know, and people were kind of like, you know, he's not taking it seriously. And it's not. It's like, it's not that I'm not taking it seriously. I'm hot and I'm not wearing a freaking suit when it's 100 degrees outside.

[Dan Driscoll]

Look at his tank top.

[Cody]

Business formal. So I'm just like, so I'm like, so I'm not. So I'm not. I'm not doing that. And so I remember the. The. The Maryland speaker of the House called me up and she's like, have you heard the brouhaha about your attire? And I said, yes, ma' am, I have. And she. And she said, that's good. I like it.

[Donut Operator]

So she.

[Cody]

So she calls me out. That's awesome, by the way. So she calls me up, and she's like, have you heard this whole brouhaha about your attire? And I said, yes, ma' am, I have. And she said, I just have one piece of advice. She said, don't spend a second trying to be like them. She said, make them try to be like you. And if you do that, you actually might have a shot of winning this thing. And long story short, that's kind of how we rolled. And I ended up winning with more individual votes than anyone who'd ever run for governor in the history of the state of Maryland.

[Donut Operator]

No kidding.

[Cody]

So just. I guess. So I guess the answer is, you know, just, you know, I'm. I'm never. I've always said I am. I will spend. I have no problem spending all day introducing myself to people who don't know me. I will never spend a second reintroducing myself to people who do know me. So I'm not trying to be something that I'm not.

[Fat Electrician]

That's cool.

[Dan Driscoll]

That is amazing.

[Fat Electrician]

So you're an officer. You've led men in the military. Now you're a governor. You essentially, you know, lead the American people, which is harder because I feel like it's governor because at least with the military, everybody was there that volunteered. Governor is just kind of like, well, this was your spawn point. Now I'm in charge. So, I mean, what's. Which one's harder to lead? What's the difference there between trying to lead civilians versus military members?

[Cody]

It's a really interesting question. It's a good question. So I would say I love leading soldiers, and I miss it. I really do. I don't miss everything about the military. Trust me.

[Fat Electrician]

Military is the best shitty time you'll ever have.

[Cody]

It's the best. Like, I don't miss everything about it, but there's a whole lot that I do. You know, in fact, early. Earlier today, you know, I started my day actually with the. With the members of the. Of the Maryland National Guard. As you know, I spent time with our Guard. I spent time with. At our emergency operations center, just in preparation for everything going on. And I was watching them go through our training and spending time with our soldiers, and I just. Every time you get around soldiers, you just realize, like, man, that was. That was a pretty amazing time in life, and it's an honor being their commander in chief now. So I'd say there's a lot that I miss about the military. You know, one thing I think I would say, why Politics is a little bit harder. Is. It is really frustrating how politics is infused so much in this work.

[Eli Double Tap]

Everything.

[Cody]

I mean, it's like, listen, when I. When I led soldiers, I never once asked any of them, what's your political party?

[Wes Moore]

Right.

[Cody]

It didn't matter. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, we had a mission. We had a job. My job was to lead each and every one of them. And I don't. I don't care about your background. I don't care where you're from. I don't care how you voted. I don't. You know what I mean? Like, we had a singular mission, and I try to do the same thing. Like, one thing that people have noticed about us is, like, we go everywhere in our state, Western Maryland, Eastern Shore, and we go a lot of places. People like, there's not a lot of Democrats here. And I'm like, yeah, but there's a lot of Marylanders, and I'm their governor, too, and I love that. But it's amazing to me how much, like, politics gets infused in this stuff, and it's really frustrating. So in some ways, I love the fact that as governor, you really do kind of help to control a conversation and control the agenda and control a budget. I do love that. I just wish that politics.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah. Wasn't politics. Yeah, that's fair.

[Dan Driscoll]

It says swing and it sucks. That's probably the most difficult part. Then it is the polar opposites. And you're like, let's have. Let's find a common ground and then discuss it from there. And then we can make decisions based off of that.

[Cody]

Correct. Because then you're making decisions based on the information you have, the data you have. But it's clear and honestly. So, for example, one of the first things that I did when I became the governor was we made Maryland the first state in this country that now has a service year option for all of our high school graduates. So every high school graduate has a chance to have a year of service in the state of Maryland, and they can choose however the hell they want to do it. They can work with veterans, they can work in the environment, they can work with young people. It doesn't matter. My only thing is, tell me what makes your heart beat a little bit faster, and we're going to give you an opportunity to do it. And a lot of that was based on my time in the military, where I tell people that, you know, that I had people who came and campaigned for me when I was running for governor. Right. Many of them who I served with in Afghanistan. Many of them were not Marylanders, many of them were not Democrats, but they literally came and door knocked on my behalf was like, let me just tell you about the guy that I served with. And so I'm just a big believer that it's time and time this like political divisiveness and political vitriol that that service will save us. And that's why I just want more people to have that experience. Because like the people who I serve with, those are my brothers and sisters for life. I'll do anything for them. And, and I want as many young people in my state as possible to have in which however they want to get it. But I want them to have a similar type of experience and similar type of exposure. So that's smart.

[Dan Driscoll]

That's the way to do it. I mean, everyone should have to do a year.

[Cody]

Everybody.

[Dan Driscoll]

Because then it's every call like, yes, you do the military for a year, you're going to have a lot of different opinions.

[Fat Electrician]

Like, you know what I mean? That's how you also get people hating each other. Like, there's no way to stop hating or like not understanding different groups of people then being like, hey, here's one person from every state in the country. Go figure out how to live three inches from them for the next nine months.

[Cody]

There you go.

[Fat Electrician]

Like, okay, well we're going to figure it out. The only, only thing you can do.

[Cody]

At that point, everyone would learn to embrace the suck together.

[Fat Electrician]

Right.

[Cody]

When you go through suck together, you actually come out like a very tight knit group.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah, everybody has at least one common thing. You know what I mean? Like, right, hey, we've at least gone through this together. We have that in common and, and.

[Cody]

Force people to get out of there, get out of these corners, man. I mean, like, it's, it's just amazing to me how many people, they, they're very, very comfortable living in their corner and only getting a certain piece of information or only exposing themselves to a certain piece of thing. But like, again, one of the best, one of the things I loved about the military is I got a chance to meet people I would have never had a chance to meet. I would have had no reason to. I got a chance to explore the country and, and you know, and tell me, explore the world. Going places that I would have never had. I wouldn't have had a reason to go to these places, but, but I'm a better person because of it. Yeah, I think about the world differently because of it. I think about this country different because of it. And I just want everybody to be able to have that, you know, have that exposure. So, so yeah, I'm, I mean we are. I always clear. I mean I want Maryland to be the state that serves. And, and, and the big reason is because I just really do believe that service is sticky and those who serve together generally have a, have a habit of sticking together too. That's cool.

[Dan Driscoll]

Beautifully said. I know it's hard because like we, this is. There is a good common ground right now. It is because we do have differing of views on like I sent your team was like, hey, the 2A space is where we have like slightly differing. But you're, you were like, let's talk about it. At least that's why I was like, that's actually really dope. You come down and sit down and actually talk because like Brandon's huge in the two way space and like all of us are like, oh, yep, we like, we love our firearms and everything. And you're like hey, well here's my thought process on it. And then did you take any of that from just childhood to military or where did you start adapting your policy?

[Cody]

Well, you know, you know, and what's interesting is that you know, and I say this as, as, as a person who owns firearms, you know what I'm saying? But like I also, the way I also approached it and the way I viewed it was also saying like, you know, I also come from a community that have been so ripped by gun violence just constantly. I mean, Baltimore city for the eight years before I became the governor, Baltimore City went eight straight years of 300 plus homicides. And I was just like, yo, I refuse to be a governor that is just going to spend my time attending funerals and like giving eulogies. And so, and so now, now the thing that I, that I know and again I am not like, I'm not a person who's like, this is my views and I'm, and I'm, I'm not, I'm not moving on it. You know what I'm saying?

[Dan Driscoll]

That's what I love about it so far. Listening.

[Cody]

It's like you'll hear us all on that.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, because I, what we were talking about earlier is just the, the idea that you're willing to go into, like you said in the politically divisive time, go into the, the lion's den with us. One of those like, oh, we don't agree on a lot of. But like what is interesting is it all gets brought together again by us being here. For the common purpose of. We're celebrating the army. You know, Army's 250 every. It's. It's the thing that. It's a thread that brings a lot of people here together, and I think that's really cool.

[Cody]

I. And. And honestly, and. And. And I. And I. It's. Again, it's the thing that I. I really appreciate about the army and what the army has always done with me is that the army has also helped me to become somewhere again. I'm not a. I'm not a political animal in any stretch of the imagination. Like I said, I'm. I'm two and a half years into this stuff. But what I do is I really appreciate the fact that the army has given me a sense of exposure to the world and to issues and to thoughts where I feel like every single one of us, we come to the decisions we come to because of our histories. Right. Because of our experiences. What the army was able to give me, it helped me to broaden my histories and broaden my experiences. So the only thing I'm. So if the only thing I'm coming to is what I knew, the fact that I now know a lot of different things and a lot of people on perspectives actually makes me a more critical thinker. And that. And that's. And that's cool. And I think that's kind of the way I've just tried to approach, you know, approach. Approach a lot of this stuff.

[Dan Driscoll]

I guess you have to come down to Texas and hang out with us sometime.

[Cody]

Dude. I'd love to. We'll go shooting together.

[Fat Electrician]

Exactly.

[Cody]

Some fun, man. I know that this is.

[Chef Rush]

Actually.

[Cody]

There's some. Actually, I have to say, I don't know if y' all. I don't know if y' all are. Are hunters. There's some great hunting in Maryland, by the way. What do you guys think in Maryland? Well, I mean, I. I generally like waterfowl more only because I just think. I mean. And I say this respectfully, if any. All the deer hunters. I think deer hunters is deeply boring.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Cody]

I'm not against you. Against it, but it's just like, deers are just really smart animals. You know what I mean? So, like, you know, if you move, if you breathe, like, they're gone and you're not gonna see them for rest of the day. Waterfowl are just not smart. They're like, I'm sitting there smoking a cigar, I'm hanging out, I'm telling jokes, and they're still flying, and you're like, and then you go back smoking your cigar. So it's like, I kind of. I like the social aspect of hunting. So any. Any hunting that makes me sit in a. In a blind by myself, quiet, can't eat, can't nothing. I'm like, I could find a better way of spending my time.

[Dan Driscoll]

Let's go shoot some Axis in Texas. That's what we'll do. Access.

[Donut Operator]

You're like, yeah, you'll like pigs.

[Cody]

There you go.

[Donut Operator]

You can smoke your cigar. You could tell jokes.

[John C. Warr]

Exactly.

[Donut Operator]

And then they'll try to kill you, and then you kill them. It's great. It's. It's awesome.

[Cody]

I'm down with that. I'm down with that. I'm down with that. I just can't. The deer just. It's just way too. Way too quiet. Way too boring. Boring.

[Fat Electrician]

Oh, you come out to Iowa. I'll show you how to push deer with an atv. It'll be a good time.

[John C. Warr]

Oh, yeah.

[Fat Electrician]

Oh, yeah. All right, you go on one side of the wood line. Have your buddy drive through with an atv. You're on the other side of the wood line. It scares the deer into running right at you.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Fat Electrician]

For legal reasons. That was a joke.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, man. Wes, it has been an absolute. We got your teams, like, three minutes, so we'll get you guys a great man.

[Cody]

You guys are great, brother.

[Dan Driscoll]

Thank you so, so much for coming on. This has been a true pleasure.

[Cody]

And listen, man, happy birthday to the army. This is. This is an organization to help save my life, man. So I'm. And. And. And I. I'll say that. I know y' all gotta run, but I'll say this. When I was with our soldiers earlier on today, I said, listen, it's a beautiful thing that people have a chance to go out and express their first amendment right, and people have a chance to go out there and write to assembly and everything like that. It's also really important that the people understand that the reason they have those rights is because people are willing to fight for them. The reason that people. The reason that you do have the right to assembly, the reason you do have the right to free speech, the reason you do have the right to all these things is because there were people who were willing to sacrifice their lives in order for you to have those rights. And it means that there are people who, right now, as we are speaking, like the members of the Maryland National Guard, like our folks in the eoc, who are out there running drills, training, and giving up their weekends so we could enjoy ours and So I just think it's really important that. That when we talk about a chance to celebrate, that's great. Let's also remember the sacrifice that was required in order for that celebration to take place in the first place.

[Fat Electrician]

So well said.

[Dan Driscoll]

I appreciate it, brother. Thank you so much.

[Chef Rush]

Truly appreciate it. I'm gonna get out there and do some hawks.

[Dan Driscoll]

You ever scared of being on the Internet?

[Cody]

I am.

[Dan Driscoll]

My daddy getting leaked. Or perhaps you're on Netflix and you're like, man, I just really want to watch this love story. It's beautiful, but my country won't let me. Well, do I have the solution for you. With Surfshark VPN, you can unlock 15 of the largest libraries on Netflix. United States, Japan.

[Chef Rush]

Konichiwa Okdeska.

[Dan Driscoll]

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[Fat Electrician]

What is Surfshark?

[Dan Driscoll]

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[Fat Electrician]

Cody, do the thing.

[Brandon Herrera]

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Unsubscribe podcast. I'm joined today by Eli Double Tap, fat electrician, Chef Rush, my favorite chef in the world, Brandon Herrera, myself, donut operator. Thank you so much for being here.

[Dan Driscoll]

And your biceps are here too.

[Chef Rush]

I feel pretty small in between you guys.

[Fat Electrician]

Have you guessed Read?

[General Randy George]

Yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

You have three breathe here, right? Three chairs, one for each arm.

[Donut Operator]

I feel like I have to compensate. I need to fen. Make me bigger in the edit.

[Dan Driscoll]

You're just fat.

[John C. Warr]

It just makes me wide.

[Fat Electrician]

Grab that warp thing that all the Instagram models put on their ass. Put it on my biceps, dude.

[Eli Double Tap]

Tell, tell, tell the tell.

[Dan Driscoll]

Unsub's Audience about yourself.

[Chef Rush]

About me? Yeah, I'm the. No, I'm joking. Kind of, sort of. But no, I'm Chef Rush. Everybody knows me as a White House chef. I'm a decorated combat veteran. I'm actually being here at the 250 is one of the biggest honors I could ever have. I do a lot of TV shows. Gordon Ramsey, my shows. I have 24 inch biceps.

[Dan Driscoll]

No, as do we all, Chef.

[General Randy George]

As do we.

[Chef Rush]

And I do 22, 22 push ups a day except for Saturday and Sunday now for suicide awareness and mental health, and I still do them. So I do expect for you guys to do one push up with me sometime today.

[Fat Electrician]

How long does that take you?

[Chef Rush]

It takes me an hour and a half.125 at 17.75.

[Dan Driscoll]

A day. How many can you go now without break?

[Chef Rush]

125.

[Dan Driscoll]

That PT score real quick.

[Chef Rush]

Yeah, I used to.

[Cody]

That is.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay. I'm curious. What, how's your cardio?

[Chef Rush]

My cardio is amazing.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah.

[Chef Rush]

I'm an endurance trainer.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay.

[Chef Rush]

I'm endurance trainer. So even though I'm a big guy, I gain and lose weight really quick. So I'm at 2, like 280 right now. I was just at like 270 and I was at 260. I did a TV show. I was a zombie while I was at 310, 320 in. And so I just go back and forth, but my body can handle it because that's the way I train.

[Fat Electrician]

I was bigger than you. Then I was still bigger than you. Then I was still bigger than you. And then I was way bigger than you.

[Dan Driscoll]

I lost one of you, and I was still bigger than you. I got all the way down to 260.

[General Randy George]

What?

[Fat Electrician]

I, I, I barely made weight for heavyweight in the ufc.

[Dan Driscoll]

That is wild.

[Chef Rush]

This is the hot seat over here.

[Fat Electrician]

So how, how did you first go viral? Because I think I was there for it. Somebody just snapped a picture of you working and it went apeshit on the Internet.

[Chef Rush]

It was. That was.

[Dan Driscoll]

And you can bring that mic a little bit closer. Bring it up in them list.

[Chef Rush]

So. So.

[Donut Operator]

Pick up lines with Eli.

[Dan Driscoll]

Now look at me.

[Chef Rush]

That's okay. It's okay. So the first time I went viral, which I actually have been viral many times, but the very first time was when it's hard to come viral, was when it was. Twitter was out and I never had any social media. And it was when I was in the White House and I did a Ramadan dinner and I hated the media. They were stalking me and they actually took A picture that I didn't know. And I went to the police, came out talking to them. They came back out, and a lady came up to me, a reporter, and she said to Kate Bennett, she came to me, I was outside, and she says, I'm gonna make you famous. And I said to her, I'm already famous. And she laughs like, no, no. She said, look at your Twitter. I said, I don't have Twitter. She said, do you have Instagram? I said, no, I have anything. And then the guys showed me.

[Brandon Herrera]

It sounds like she's hitting on you, dude.

[Cody]

I'm gonna make you famous. I told girls that all the time.

[Chef Rush]

I say that to a lot. Never. That's another. But, hey, girl, do you want to.

[Donut Operator]

Be popular with autistic men in their 30s?

[Chef Rush]

That happened and then went inside the White House and it went ape. And I did the best thing that a man could do. I. I ran ahead. I literally ran ahead. I was like, I don't like this. I hate it.

[Fat Electrician]

I thought, did you hide behind adult.

[Chef Rush]

Okay, I stepped myself over that one. That was a punchline. But eventually what I said was, if I want to make a difference, I need to be a difference, right? Become a difference. And I let everything die down, which was a terrible thing to do. And then when I did decide it, I did it from scratch. Like, I. I had an old whole account that got like 700, 000. I deleted it. Got rid of it.

[Dan Driscoll]

You deleted?

[Chef Rush]

I deleted it. I didn't want anything to do with social media. Nothing at all.

[Dan Driscoll]

Dang.

[Chef Rush]

Nothing whatsoever. Right. I was. I was okay in my own little shell, doing my own little thing. And then I went and did the other logical thing I could possibly do. I got on the phone and I called my mama, who had no idea about social media, but she believed in God and faith and everything else. And she's like, maybe this is what you need to do. Like, maybe this is what he's trying to tell you to do. And when I did that, he took care of me, and it just went one viral after one viral at the. One viral after one viral. And. And when I really decided to start to do it, I went from a hundred and one hundred fifty, zero zero zero in the first week to five million on all my platform, a million on YouTube, a million on Facebook, million on Instagram in the first week. And so. And then it went to 6 million, 7 million. And then I was like, oh, I had. I'm doing all this by myself.

[Cody]

Yeah.

[Chef Rush]

So I'm doing all this editing all the other things. And then it went up to like 14 million. I was like, okay, I gotta stop, I gotta regroup. Cause I'm a speaker also. I'm doing TV shows. I'm like doing everything. I didn't want to just do social media. And I still don't just do social media, but I do a lot of social media with other guys, which we get about, you know, 500, 700, 800 million views for one, one of my videos. Right. Which is, you know, impressive because I like to see what other people do off of me, not what I do off myself. Myself. So it kind of gauges what my engagement is with other people's audience along with my own.

[Brandon Herrera]

What's, what's your favorite collaboration you've done?

[Chef Rush]

It'll be the one with you when you invite me.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, okay. He's coming on. Let him cook.

[Dan Driscoll]

You're going to come on.

[Chef Rush]

Yeah, dude, I want to break your table.

[Cody]

Break the out of it.

[Donut Operator]

Honestly, that would be the best send.

[Chef Rush]

Off to think about. Okay. No, you know what? I've done some really amazing collabs, I mean with some extraordinary people, celebrities, influencers, I mean from. I just left Japan, I just left Korea, one of the guys from Chile, one of Asia, and, and I'm taking so many pictures out here because I, I pay attention to each and every audience in every country. I'm a country person. I like diversity, I like culture.

[Eli Double Tap]

Culture.

[Chef Rush]

So I'm super popular over in Japan, I'm super popular over in Korea, in Brazil, Argentina, India. I mean, and I'll go to those countries because of that fact. I don't just like, oh, okay, I got fans over there, I want to go there and see them. Right? That's how you solidify yourself. You want to put yourself in that spot. And from that part of it, it becomes very dynamic because I teach a lot of the guys how to do social media, but not only social media. My, my superpower is my biggest social media that I have out there. You know which one it is? I have 8 million on YouTube. I have 3 million, 3 million, 4 million. And then the biggest one I have is my most, the lowest, the lowest one I have is my most popular one. You know what it is?

[Dan Driscoll]

TikTok, what is it?

[Chef Rush]

Facebook, LinkedIn.

[Cody]

Oh really?

[Chef Rush]

LinkedIn? 37,000, 38,000. It is my bread and butter.

[Dan Driscoll]

Really?

[Chef Rush]

Bread and butter. I, I tell you, why is that? You know why? Because on LinkedIn people say, oh my God, it's for old people, it's for these people, it's so boring. It's so boring. You know what content I put on LinkedIn?

[Brandon Herrera]

What?

[Chef Rush]

My own. But here's the difference from it. I turn it into a strategic matter. Here's my numbers. How did I get. Stop. Look at this post. Stop. How did I get this post? Get 500 million views in. In one week? And the audience is X, Y and Z, which are hitting this, this, this, this, this. And I explained to them how it happened and why it happens, which is how I became a consultant, because they want to know how to get those younger demographics and those younger audiences. So you got to understand that it's a, it's a. It's a science to it. You can't just think of social media as one way. Now, don't get me wrong, all my guys, they can make hundreds of hundreds of thousands of dollars off of social media a month. And that's easy. And I could do it also, but that's not my point. I want to get in where I'm doing my TV shows. I have what, seven TV shows out. YouTube, I mean, the Netflix, Ramsey, Disney, this, this, this. And then I want to go into speaking, then I want to go to consultancy. Then I want to go into my business, go to AI. I want to encompass everything. Social media is a small part of it because now all these kids out here, I have about 57 young, a young audience. And so now when I get a young kids, I get their parents. You get it?

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah.

[Chef Rush]

Right. So that's the whole part of it. So people don't think clearly when they think about social media. Just trying to get numbers. I don't want to get numbers. I want to get everything.

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah, hit all the generations.

[Chef Rush]

Exactly.

[Dan Driscoll]

Especially on LinkedIn's a really smart choice because you're. You stand out in that crowd. I guarantee it. Like, and then that's where the people with that is where CEOs and all of them are hanging out.

[Chef Rush]

And so the one thing I'll tell you about, I said it earlier on the podcast, well, out here was worth and value. On LinkedIn, you don't have to negotiate. People see you for your worth and value. They don't say, well, Chef, do this for, you know, 30,000, do this for 40,000. I'm like, no, no, that's not my price. I'm just using a number. I probably make $10 or so. But if, if it was that in LinkedIn, they will say, you're worth it. Here's what we want you to do, Chef. And this, here's what we want to Do. Right.

[John C. Warr]

I'm just.

[Donut Operator]

I'm worried about the invoice you're going to send us after this podcast.

[Chef Rush]

Oh, it's happening.

[Eli Double Tap]

You don't know it yet.

[Dan Driscoll]

Wow.

[General Randy George]

Let him cook.

[Chef Rush]

Unravel, you know? You know, the funny thing about it is it's important that we talk about this and people say, why are you telling this? Knowledge is because I don't fear about not telling it. A lot of the guys, they want to keep everything to themselves, especially on social media.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah.

[Chef Rush]

Nobody wants to share anything.

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah.

[Chef Rush]

You know, it's a whole different world. You know, I'm in the fitness world, I'm in the military world. I'm in the cooking world, I'm in the mental health world. I'm in the women's, I'm in the kids, I'm in pets. I'm doing all these different worlds, and people try to act like a keyboard to keep. If there's no reason to be. If you feel that insecure, not to tell something that you're doing to give it somebody else, then something's wrong with you. Because in my world now, where I hang around a bunch of celebrities, around these people, we just share everything.

[Cody]

Yeah, everything.

[Chef Rush]

It's an open pot. It's not like I'm gonna give you a little bit and I'll tell you the rest of it. So it's a big difference.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, do you want to hear how wild the early days of YouTube were? No one wanted to close, collaborate with each other because they thought they were stealing each other's audience.

[Donut Operator]

It's the weirdest thing. And it's gone away, thankfully, for the most part, but it's still like that.

[Chef Rush]

A lot of those, they're getting into it because the algorithm pushed it out where you need to collab. It made it. It made it acceptable because, like, oh, you can do a collab with two people now three, now four. So, like, okay, if they're saying it, it's okay now, but even then, it's so hard. But even with that part of it, I found out on YouTube, when I started doing, I went viral with a lot of people, and I felt like, you know, I mean, when I say viral, I'm talking about long form, where it was like, you know, 3, 5, 10, 2012 million, 13, 30 million for 23 million video. I didn't know that was money. I'm just thinking is, you know what it is?

[Brandon Herrera]

You didn't make money off your initial.

[Donut Operator]

Viral stuff, but you guys are getting paid.

[Chef Rush]

I don't actually. And it was Funny, because you're right about that. People kept thinking like, okay, if I share something or share their story or tag them even, they're going to get my audience. And I still have people like that today. But luckily it's only 99% of people I deal with. They don't do that. And if I do get that 1% they out, I, I don't, I don't do.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's so crazy because cross pollination is the thing.

[Chef Rush]

Exactly.

[Brandon Herrera]

Thing that we can have.

[Dan Driscoll]

It's like, I think Tik Tok did a really good job because you collabed with like Logan and a lot of like Chitwood and those guys. And TikTok really does a lot of cross pollination. That's. I've never seen it to the level YouTube's now getting it. I like, I think this community really started it where it's like, hey look, we can all grow together if we work together. Not this is mine.

[Donut Operator]

It's like being in an open field, you're like, hey bro, you're hogging my sunlight.

[Dan Driscoll]

Like, there's exactly.

[Donut Operator]

People are just on their phone all day. Like there's enough attention to go around. It's really not hard.

[Chef Rush]

No, you're right about that though. I, I like, I love YouTube because they started doing it. Tick Tock was the first one. I don't even think they wanted to. I don't even think that was their intention. They just wanted to open it up. Because if you open it up, you get everybody. They had no intentions. I mean, it was from China. They just said let everybody, everybody became Tick Tock Famous. It didn't matter if you were one person that had this, this. But they just stayed on Tick Tock because they couldn't do it on Instagram, YouTube, you know, Facebook. So they were just Tick Tock famous. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

You know, we say Tick Tock numbers don't matter.

[Chef Rush]

Yeah, exactly. It's a, you know, unfortunately it's a true statement. You can have 40 million and still like, okay, what are you doing?

[Dan Driscoll]

Yeah, yeah, that. What. So you were. Are you allowed to talk about you? Who you. The dinner you missed out with going to Korea?

[Chef Rush]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

So.

[Chef Rush]

You know, I get to do a lot of things and that's what I, I say to people is like, I, I only show about 8% of what I do on social media and I do fun videos. I'm crazy. I'll slam. I'll do all this crazy stuff. And reality is, you know, people call me influencer. I'm like, that's okay, I'm not an influencer. I'm influential. You know, they say, you know, is a creator. I said, no, I'm not a creator. I create. I do like that. Not just earning anything or discrediting anything, but if you give me a title as such, you put me in the same category as everybody else. Right. There are different types of influencers and different type of people that are doing different things. I do stuff where I want to get everybody's attention. For instance, Denzel Washington. So he called me up to do Othello. So I was a consultant for Othello for him. So I came in with Jake Gyllenhaal, and I was a person that sat there in front of all them and told them direction, because Othello, army movie, you know, Rearrange, had ptsd. Ptsd. And that was Denzel Washington. And so I needed to put him in that whole perspective of it. Like, all like us, I have ptsd. And I openly admitted it and what it went through and how I felt about it. And it was some very dark roads. So that happened. And then I went to the premiere. I went to a couple weeks ago. I went to his show, and then this past Sunday, he did the last show. It was a show. There was an after party. It was better than dinner. It was an after party. The after party was all of everybody from all over the celebrity unit world in New York, Louisiana. That went to the after party. I didn't go. I was invited because I had obligations in Korea. The government wanted me to come over and help them put a product in the US Even though they paid me, even though I could have got out of it, I'm still a loyal person. I mean, if I would have went.

[Donut Operator]

With the Korean government. Did Kim think you were Dennis Rodman?

[Chef Rush]

A little bit. He thought it was a short version of it.

[Donut Operator]

I got Nick with that one.

[Dan Driscoll]

You did?

[Donut Operator]

Sorry to derail.

[Chef Rush]

Please continue. You know, I was invited there.

[Eli Double Tap]

Really?

[Chef Rush]

No, I was invited there. I'm pretty popular in Korea.

[Donut Operator]

There's a couple of people I've heard of getting invited.

[Chef Rush]

I was invited there. No, yeah, yeah, I was invited there. I. I do a lot over in Korea. I've done two Netflix shows. Three Netflix shows there. I've done. No, I've done a lot of stuff there. Like really popular viral shows. Like viral shows, they get borrowed in the US So Korea is very smart. They do shows that's Korean based, but they target the U.S. for instance, squid games. Like, I would just. Nick just ask me to do a video with squid games. But I had to come and do something else.

[Dan Driscoll]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Chef Rush]

And then what's the other show? Physical 100. Physical 100 was a popular show, Black and White, which I did. Culinary Wars, Zombie Verse. I played multiple roles on Zombie Verse. I actually played my first role there and I was. I was one of the people that was. Career is very different. I mean, they work their asses off. Like you don't get hurt in Korea.

[Brandon Herrera]

What show did you say? I'm sorry, I can't hear.

[Chef Rush]

Culinary Wars.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay.

[Chef Rush]

Which is a culinary show which had all the top chefs in Korea.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay.

[Chef Rush]

It went super viral. Whole part of it. They called it Black and White. I was on that show. I'm doing the second season for it. Then I did a show called Zombie Verse, which is a reality show with all the. So what Korea does is they get all the K pop stars, they're entertainers, and they make them the stars and they make it a reality show. So I was on a reality show and I had to get there. I had to get killed off. They killed me off. And then I went back to the US in LA and they called me right back and said, chef, you did amazing job. We want you to come back as a. A boss zombie. So they made a roll up for me to be a zombie to kill my friends.

[Brandon Herrera]

Jesus, you're the most frightening zombie ever.

[Chef Rush]

I was.

[Brandon Herrera]

You're a fast zombie too, right?

[Cody]

You're not one of the walkers.

[Chef Rush]

You know what crazy was was the Koreans didn't know I came back. The guys was on the show. Cuz a lot of them did speak English. So they hit me and they put me in this. It's creepy as you got to see it, right? They put in a thing and then when they unveiled me, they were terrified. So when I came at them, they. They literally thought that I was going to kill.

[Cody]

So.

[Brandon Herrera]

So you weren't like a walker zombie. You're a fast zombie.

[Chef Rush]

I was a fast one.

[Fat Electrician]

I was a boss level zombie on the kitchen level. Like, you got to go through all the sue chefs and stuff, and then he's in the kitchen with a meat cleaver.

[Chef Rush]

I did. I was like the whole part of it. They had me tied up to a £400 tire that popped my damn hamstring. It was. It was crazy.

[Donut Operator]

Had you tied to a tire?

[Chef Rush]

Yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

Holy moly.

[Brandon Herrera]

Still scary.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah, dude.

[Dan Driscoll]

You just got time for. Your time is up. I like, they were like, you have to go. No, you don't.

[Wes Moore]

2:35.

[Chef Rush]

Oh. 2:30. Oh. I gotta go over to. I gotta. I'm doing a thing at three. Yeah, we gotta go.

[Dan Driscoll]

Okay.

[Fat Electrician]

At least.

[Chef Rush]

Oh, yeah, most definitely. Most definitely. That was fun, man.

[Cody]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Where do we find you?

[Dan Driscoll]

Where do the people find you at?

[Chef Rush]

You can find me right here. Chef Rush. Real Chef Rush Everywhere and on LinkedIn. Most definitely on LinkedIn.

[Cody]

Yeah.

[Dan Driscoll]

Massive follow on there. And then we would love to have you on. Let him cook.

[Chef Rush]

We've talked about it multiple times place, so that'll be fine, dude.

[Dan Driscoll]

It'll be a blast.

[Chef Rush]

Let him cook.

[Dan Driscoll]

Thank you. Thank you so much for coming out.

[Chef Rush]

Thank you, guys. Pleasure. Appreciate you guys.

[Dan Driscoll]

Hey, guys. I hope you enjoyed the army 250. Now we're back. It's loud still. It's been hectic all day.

[Eli Double Tap]

We've.

[Dan Driscoll]

We made it, though. Thank you for chase. Dear God, you have to edit this.

[Fat Electrician]

I picked up rocks out of the grass.

[Brandon Herrera]

I couldn't hear anything.

[Dan Driscoll]

I'm just reading lips down here. I'm like, yes.

[Brandon Herrera]

I hope it doesn't come across on the. The Governor Moore podcast. I was doing this.

[Dan Driscoll]

We hope you all enjoyed it. Cody, you want to do the thing?

[Brandon Herrera]

Bye, everyone. Thank you for coming to the unsubscribe podcast. I was joined today by Eli Double Tap, fat electrician, Brandon Rare, myself, donut operator. We love you.

[Dan Driscoll]

We love you.

[Fat Electrician]

Goodbye.

[Chef Rush]

Goodbye.

[Brandon Herrera]

Bye, guys.

[Fat Electrician]

I'm going to take a whack bang out.

[Chef Rush]

You.

[Cody]

Know my.